Why not Paul Krugman for Secretary of the Treasury?

[Cyrano]

He's a professor of economics at Princeton and, from his NY Times column, we know where he stands on economic policies.

As far as I know, he has no political debts to anyone and could therefore go into a political office as pure as anyone could possibly be.

So why haven't we heard his name being mentioned?

(I haven't been on DU much lately, so excuse me if this topic has already been discussed.)

[onehandle]

1. He doesn't want it. nt

[lapfog_1]

2. I think he would be better as Chairman of the Fed.

And I suspect that is what he will get someday.

[soothsayer]

6. Obama should ABOLISH the Fed

[margotb822]

3. I was thinking the same thing

Maybe they think he won't be confirmed. AFAIC, the Nobel is a good confirmation.

[DFW]

4. Good, qualified people with common sense AND a sense of humor? Get real.

That's the most preposterous suggestion I've heard since someone suggested Howard Dean for HHS.

Oh, wait......

Never mind :-)

[jobycom]

5. He's "temperamentally unsuited for that kind of role."

When Bill Clinton came into office in 1993, he considered Krugman for a leading post; Krugman was flown out for a meeting in Arkansas. Krugman's outspokenness was reported to be "the main reason the Clinton administration didn't offer him a job."<8> Krugman says he would not have been interested in such a job; he told Newsweek, "I'm temperamentally unsuited for that kind of role. You have to be very good at people skills, biting your tongue when people say silly things."<8> In his New York Times blog, Krugman repeated that statement, saying that he was "temperamentally unsuited to politics".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Krugman

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He would be a good choice if he could be persuaded.

I also like James K Galbraith, at the University of Texas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_K_Galbraith

[JJ]

8. We need someone "temperamentally unsuited to politics"

in that role. Since our nation's economic policy for the last 28 years has been based on an outright fraud. (trickle-down, supply-side, voodoo economics) It's time we had someone who will call a lie a lie.

Not all ideas are equally valid.

"Reality is a bias." - Can't Remember who said it

[jobycom]

9. I agree in part, but it's not me you have to convince.

It's Krugman. He's the one who said it. And Galbraith fits that description as well as Krugman.

And I don't agree with this revisionist lumping of Clinton with Reagan and Bush. He reversed Reagan's supply-sided nonsense, and that's what made the 90s boom.

[Selatius]

14. I wouldn't say so. The 1990s economy boomed for the top people.

Everybody else in the bottome like 90 percent saw wages that did not keep up with inflation, and if wages did rise, it only rose to match inflation, while the people at the top were growing well and beyond the rate of inflation. In the 1950s and 1960s, the gains of the economy were more evenly spread out. Clinton was certainly more moderate than Reagan, but he wasn't the Anti-Reagan. You would need a strong leftist like FDR or Truman to reverse what Reagan did. Clinton never ran that far left.

[Mike 03]

7. He is certainly qualified, but gauging his words carefully over the past two months, I

seriously doubt he would want this job. My thought was that perhaps he could advise whomever Obama selects.

[MannyGoldstein]

10. He'd Be A Fantastic Adviser. The Best!

But running a bureaucracy? Not his thing.

[librechik]

11. not crooked enough

He couldn't get anything done with his staff of finance industry crooks, and would wind up a mysterious "suicide."

I like him too much to wish that on him.

We need a guy with a reputation as a harsh regulator. Don't know where you'll dig one up after the last three decades.

[amitta]

12. same reason as Dean, Spitzer

they are too good, too democratic in this post-partisan country.

[Gman2]

13. He is doing what GOD told him to do. Be the ombudsman!

Why cant you allow the man to reveal his genius? He is the checker of fact, like Waxman. Natural order and all!!!!!!!!!!!