Fiscal Conservative to head the Council of Economic Advisors

Jason Furman will be the new chairman of the CEA (see here). He is a veteran of the White House and a Democratic insider. He is also a fiscal conservative associated with Robert Rubin's Hamilton Project, whose mission calls for "combining public investment, a secure social safety net, and fiscal discipline." Yes discipline as in balanced budgets or 'sound finance', as they say, and lower spending, including reforming entitlements (aka privatizing social security, which is the real meaning of 'secure social safety net'). So don't expect any stimulus coming from the Obama team anytime soon. Obama seems to be stuck with the austerian paradigm.