Goolsbee: Krueger a ‘tremendously good pick’ for top White House econ adviser

Alan Krueger, the Princeton economist who the White House plans to nominate as its next top economics adviser, is a "tremendously good pick," according to the man he'd be replacing. The Lookout spoke with Austan Goolsbee on Monday; he also ripped the "partisan, poisonous" atmosphere in Washington.

Goolsbee, who stepped down earlier this month as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, described Krueger as a "very respected researcher in labor economics" who "knows all the players."

Krueger served earlier in the Obama administration as a top Treasury Department official, and during the Clinton administration as the Labor Department's chief economist.

Goolsbee said that though Krueger isn't a macro-economist, he nonetheless has a good grasp of the larger demand-side issues holding back job growth, noting Krueger's research on the lack of job creation during the recession of 2001. And during his tenure at Treasury, Goolsbee said, Krueger worked on efforts to create jobs by spurring infrastructure investment through the use of "Build America" bonds, and through the payroll tax cut.

"If you were trying to design the perfect candidate," said Goolsbee, "it would be an understanding of the macro side, and with a real-world knowledge of the labor market"--and, Goolsbee, suggested, that is precisely Krueger's skill set.

Goolsbee, who last week returned to his previous position as a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, added he was glad to be out of official Washington.

"You can only take it for so long--it got to be such a partisan, poisonous circumstance after a while," he said. "You need some new blood."