Biden taps progressive economist Jared Bernstein as top adviser.
Biden taps progressive economist Jared Bernstein as top adviser.
Vice President-elect Joseph Biden has just announced that Jared Bernstein, Director of the Living Standards program at the Economic Policy Institute, will fill the new position of Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice President. Bernstein is a renowned progressive economist, with expertise on the middle-class squeeze, income inequality and mobility, low-wage labor markets, and poverty. In May, Bernstein wrote on Huffington Post that it’s now time for progressives to govern after years of conservative failures:
Regarding the variables that matter most to working families, the neocon experiment was a particularly dramatic failure. Employment grew one third as fast as the average over the 2000s business cycle and the unemployment rate, though low on average, was higher at the end of the cycle than at the beginning. Perhaps the most damning indictment is this: for the first time on record, going back to the mid-1940s, the income of the typical, middle-income family was slightly lower last year than at the prior peak in 2000 (see their figure A). [...]
The defenders of the status quo will howl in protest: the Democrats blocked us, the terrorist attacks and the war changed everything, we must stay the course to victory! But such rhetoric should be dismissed as what it is: the last, desperate gasps of a dying movement.
They’ve had their turn and they’ve failed. It is our turn now.
Bernstein previously served as the Deputy Chief Economist for the Department of Labor, Congressional Budget Office’s advisory committee, and is a contributor to CNBC.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
The guy who plays second fiddle to the second fiddle is a ‘progressive’?
Now there’s some shit, innit?
I know: I gotta live with it…
chuy
December 5th, 2008 at 12:55 pmAnd, evidently Obama has appointed for his lead trade negotiator someone who has been very critical of NAFTA. Plus, making Daschle the Sec of Human Services shows he wants universal healthcare legislation to clear congress quickly – that’s what Dashle does. These are good signs for progressives whether or not they know it.
December 5th, 2008 at 12:56 pmFrankly, I am a little surprised by Biden’s initiative. But I ain’t complainin’. Smooth move, dude.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:02 pmSounds like a step in the correct direction. I’m anxious to see us actually move.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:03 pmOh just wait…the rightwing media or the conspiracy freaks will come up with something on this guy. If you dare go take a peek at the Infowars.com site and read comments there. We have a lot of idiots running around in our country. Everything Obama does is about the NWO to these sheople.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:07 pmtokin librul Says:
The guy who plays second fiddle to the second fiddle is a ‘progressive’?
Now there’s some shit, innit?
December 5th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
_________
It’s a step in the right direction. Let’s give credit where credit’s due, eh?
Now if Obama names Joseph Stiglitz to a high-level economic adviser position, I’ll be impressed.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:09 pmOT but LOL:
December 5th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
tokin librul is complaining about a token liberal?
December 5th, 2008 at 1:14 pmThey’ve had their turn and they’ve failed. It is our turn now.
Ouch
December 5th, 2008 at 1:28 pmWell, I hope that Bernstein tells Biden that the Bankruptcy Bill that Biden pushed certainly isn’t helping in this economy.
December 6th, 2008 at 2:31 am