Hotline On Call: Christina Romer, chairwoman of Pres. Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, has decided to resign, according to a source familiar with her plans.
Romer, an economics professor at the University of California (Berkeley) before taking the key admin post, did not respond to repeated calls to her office.
"She has been frustrated," a source with insight into the WH economics team said. "She doesn't feel that she has a direct line to the president. She would be giving different advice than Larry Summers [director of the National Economic Council], who does have a direct line to the president."
"She is ostensibly the chief economic adviser, but she doesn't seem to be playing that role," the source said. The WH has been pounded for its faulty forecast that unemployment would not top 8% after its economic stimulus proposal passed.
Instead, the jobless rate is 9.5%, after exceeding 10% last year. It was "a horribly inaccurate forecast," said Bert Ely, a banking consultant. "You have to wonder why Summers isn't the one that should be taking the fall. But Larry is a pretty good bureaucratic infighter."
I cannot blame Christina Romer for being frustrated. Having to go out every month to spin crappy job reports like she was some Baghdad Bob in a skirt is a very frustrating thing to do. I for one, could not stand her smiley face as she lied her ass off about bad news. I can just imagine how someone who has been unemployed for 99 week must feel every time Romer took to the airwaves.
I would not be surprised if Romer ends up writing one of the first Obama administration tell all books.
Via: Memeorandum
Via: Hotline On Call