New CEA Chair

The Bush administration named its new CEA chair yesterday to replace Greg Mankiw: Harvey Rosen. Rosen is a reasonable, well-respected economist, with a great reputation in the field of public finance. He’s also a very nice guy, but what appeals more to the Bush administration, I’m sure, is that he may be a bit more circumspect in his comments than Mankiw was. Of course it does leave one scratching one’s head over the oft-asked question: why would anyone with Harvey Rosen’s excellent reputation risk ruining it by agreeing to mouth the administration’s economic nonsense for a year or two?

Kash