Economic Advisers

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and his top economic advisers, undecided about what to propose to revive the flagging economy, sent mixed signals yesterday on cutting taxes and on whether to violate last year's budget agreement.The confusion was clearest on Capitol Hill. On the first day of a series of congressional hearings on tax policy and the state of the economy, the economic advisers at first suggested that giving the economy a quick jolt was more important than holding to the budget agreement.

In a fairly unconventional tweak to the Orioles' front office structure, new executive vice president Dan Duquette has hired an economic adviser with local ties to help determine players' financial value to the organization. Stephen Walters, a Loyola University economics professor, is now also working for the Orioles, providing financial and statistical valuations of players to help Duquette make personnel decisions. Walters believes he is the only such adviser employed by a big league team, though, “if [other clubs]

Washington -- President Bush named Ben Bernanke, head of his Council of Economic Advisers, yesterday to succeed Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve. If confirmed, Bernanke, 51, a former Fed member, will have big economic challenges ahead - perhaps even bigger than those Greenspan has encountered. Greenspan, 79, who earned credibility and star-like status in handling stock market crashes, international financial crises, inflation, and booms and busts in more than 18 years as the Fed's chairman, is retiring in January.

New Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette's vision for the organization is coming into clearer focus, with news of a de-emphasis on physical scouting at the professional level, more resources poured into amateur scouting and the hiring of a Loyola University professor as an economic adviser to help quantify players' financial values to the team. Believing that the organization would be better served by using statistical and video analysis on the pro level while having more scouts watch potential draft picks, Duquette has orchestrated a fairly dramatic change in the scouting department.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's economic advisers said yesterday that the nation's sagging economy probably will rebound in a few months, and they rebutted arguments that living standards have dropped under the Reagan and Bush administrations.In the president's Annual Economic Report, the White House said the nation's economy would grow by a sluggish 1.6 percent this year if Congress did not pass the president's package of tax cuts and other measures intended to stimulate growth. If Congress enacted the program, the report said, growth would climb to 2.2 percent.

Responding to pressure to name a prominent mainstream economist to the Council of Economic Advisers, President-elect Bill Clinton has offered a seat on the council to Alan Blinder of Princeton University, and Blinder has accepted, aides to Clinton and others familiar with the appointment said over the weekend.Blinder, whose appointment is likely to be announced this week, would serve under Laura D'Andrea Tyson, a Stanford University economist. Some economists have criticized Ms. Tyson's appointment, arguing that her speciality, industrial and trade issues, has not given her the broad skills needed by a chairman of the council.

WASHINGTON -- Joseph E. Stiglitz, who served for the last year and a half as chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, said he would leave the Clinton administration early next year to become chief economist at the World Bank.Stiglitz's departure, which had been expected, leaves PresidentClinton with another post to fill as he continues to consider possible choices to lead the Commerce, Labor, Energy, Transportation and Housing departments as well as the National Economic Council.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's economic advisers, suggesting that the Federal Reserve's drive to slow the economy to a more sustainable growth rate is on the right track, predicted yesterday that short-term interest rates could start to fall before the end of the year.Also, disputing the assertions of a vocal minority, the economic advisers reluctantly concluded that the long-run growth potential of the U.S. economy had not substantially improved."The preponderance of the available empirical evidence supports the conventional wisdom that the economy's productive capacity is expanding at roughly a 2.5 percent annual rate," the President's Council of Economic Advisers said in its annual report on the economy.

WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday distanced himself from his economic advisers' claim that the economy would add 2.6 million jobs this year, enough to more than erase all of the job losses incurred during his first term. Bush declined to endorse the jobs estimate during a joint Oval Office appearance with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Asked about the projection, Bush said, "I think the economy is growing. And I think it's going to get stronger." Bush's comment came a day after Treasury Secretary John W. Snow and Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans refused to publicly endorse the job estimate, issued nine days ago by Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.

TWO SKILLED, TOUGH women are now President Clinton's top negotiators on the international scene. His nod for Secretary of State went to Madeleine Albright, who made her mark with sharp elbows as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Then last Friday he chose for U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, whose reputation for aggressiveness in promoting U.S. economic interests is legendary wherever importers and exporters meet.It was symbolic when the president's new appointees lined up at the latest Clinton press conference that Ms. Barshefsky was nowhere to be seen.

President Barack Obama plans to issue a series of proposals next week to address what public opinion polls say is far and away the biggest issue on the minds of Americans: how to create jobs and spur economic growth. But the reaction to his nomination of a well-respected, mainstream economist and expert on labor markets to the post as head of the Council of Economic Advisers shows just how seriously politics has warped the debate about the economy in Washington. Here's a sampling of what is being said by the nation's top economists about Alan Krueger, the Princeton professor Mr. Obama wants as his top economic adviser: He is a "smart guy" and an "excellent choice"; he is "an expert in labor-market problems, taxation and the economics of terrorism.

ABC's 'This Week' Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council; Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va. 9 a.m.: WMDT (Channel 47), 10 a.m.: WJLA (Channel 7), 10:30 a.m.: WMAR (Channel 2) CBS' 'Face the Nation' Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent. 10:30 a.m.: WUSA (Channel 9) and WJZ (Channel 13) CNN's 'State of the Union' Summers; Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and John Thune, R-S.D.

CHICAGO -- President Bill Clinton once said his Treasury secretary, Robert E. Rubin, was the greatest since Alexander Hamilton. When President Bush announced the departure Monday of his Treasury secretary, John W. Snow, neither Mr. Bush nor anyone was tempted to compare him to any of his more revered predecessors. When Mr. Snow leaves Washington, will anyone notice? The Treasury post used to be among the most powerful in Washington - filled by such weighty figures as John B. Connally, George P. Shultz, James A. Baker III and Lloyd Bentsen.

At the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee meeting Tuesday, Alan Greenspan and company are widely expected to raise short-term interest rates another quarter of a percentage point, the 14th such increase since June 2004. The most significant aspect of this meeting, however, is that it will be Chairman Greenspan's last. After 18-plus years, the 79-year-old chief is retiring. President Bush's nominee for Mr. Greenspan's replacement - Ben S. Bernanke, current head of the president's Council of Economic Advisers - is set to be confirmed by the Senate the same day. So much has been written about Mr. Greenspan's successful tenure at the Fed, as a brilliant economic sage and as a not-so-behind-the-scenes political player, that it is easy to conclude that his act will be an extremely tough one to follow.

New York -- Martin S. Feldstein had all the qualifications to become the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. A conservative Republican, the internationally renowned Harvard University economics professor was an adviser to George W. Bush's first presidential campaign and led President Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers. Feldstein, 65, was passed over Monday in favor of Ben Bernanke, 51, Bush's top economic adviser and a former Fed governor. Feldstein's ties to troubled insurance giant American International Group Inc., his outspoken advocacy of Bush's plan to overhaul Social Security and his support for a tax increase as Reagan's adviser meant he would likely face a tough nomination battle at a time Bush is looking for a smooth confirmation.

Washington -- President Bush named Ben Bernanke, head of his Council of Economic Advisers, yesterday to succeed Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve. If confirmed, Bernanke, 51, a former Fed member, will have big economic challenges ahead - perhaps even bigger than those Greenspan has encountered. Greenspan, 79, who earned credibility and star-like status in handling stock market crashes, international financial crises, inflation, and booms and busts in more than 18 years as the Fed's chairman, is retiring in January.

ABC's 'This Week' Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council; Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va. 9 a.m.: WMDT (Channel 47), 10 a.m.: WJLA (Channel 7), 10:30 a.m.: WMAR (Channel 2) CBS' 'Face the Nation' Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent. 10:30 a.m.: WUSA (Channel 9) and WJZ (Channel 13) CNN's 'State of the Union' Summers; Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and John Thune, R-S.D.

New York -- Martin S. Feldstein had all the qualifications to become the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. A conservative Republican, the internationally renowned Harvard University economics professor was an adviser to George W. Bush's first presidential campaign and led President Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers. Feldstein, 65, was passed over Monday in favor of Ben Bernanke, 51, Bush's top economic adviser and a former Fed governor. Feldstein's ties to troubled insurance giant American International Group Inc., his outspoken advocacy of Bush's plan to overhaul Social Security and his support for a tax increase as Reagan's adviser meant he would likely face a tough nomination battle at a time Bush is looking for a smooth confirmation.

WASHINGTON - One of President Bush's top economic advisers, Stephen Friedman, plans to resign from the administration to return to private life, White House officials said yesterday. Friedman was little seen during his two-year tenure as director of the National Economic Council, a formerly high-profile job that his predecessors used not only to advise the president on economic strategy but also to promote the president's policies to the public. Friedman, a former co-chairman of investment firm Goldman Sachs, came to the White House to replace council Director Lawrence B. Lindsey, who was forced to resign along with Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill in December 2002.

WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday distanced himself from his economic advisers' claim that the economy would add 2.6 million jobs this year, enough to more than erase all of the job losses incurred during his first term. Bush declined to endorse the jobs estimate during a joint Oval Office appearance with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Asked about the projection, Bush said, "I think the economy is growing. And I think it's going to get stronger." Bush's comment came a day after Treasury Secretary John W. Snow and Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans refused to publicly endorse the job estimate, issued nine days ago by Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.