" ... Progressives like Heather Boushey and Jared Bernstein ..."

This is from the top of Mason's post, but I waited until I'd touched on all his points to add this one. 

Here's the whole quote:

The fact that people like Lawrence Summers have been ignored in favor of progressives like Heather Boushey and Jared Bernstein, and deficit hawks like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget have been left screeching irrelevantly from the sidelines, isn’t just gratifying as spectacle. It suggests a big move in the center of gravity of economic policy debates.

A couple of things that make macro so hard are 1) lots of people out in the public have opinions, but not many of them invest the time and effort to make them informed, which is fine except that 2) they're also vocal, while 3) they are overconfident, 4) may listen to people who have no expertise in macroeconomics. Some of those points are covered in the original Why Is Macro So Hard post from 11 years ago.

And the whole thing is conditioned by what I call the Bridge's Weight Limit Problem. I fear this is exactly what's going on right now. 

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Which has what all to do with Jared Bernstein?

I'll preface this by saying that I am not a liberal progressive. But I do read a lot that is written by them so that I can keep up on current viewpoints. And in that vein, I like Jared Bernstein a lot. I think he writes well, I don't think he's too insulting to people he's opposed to, and he has some good ideas. Check him out.

Except ... Jared Bernstein isn't an economist. 

But he plays one in the White House.

Bernstein is a member of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Biden White House This is usually 3 public people, plus some staff economists. There's no requirement that these people be economists, but 1) they usually are, and 2) people out in the public assume that they must be. Not so.

But when Bernstein was your age ... he majored in ... wait for it ... Music with a specialization in double bass performance. 

Then he got a master's degree in Social Work. 

Then he got a Ph.D. in something called Social Welfare. This is not a typical major. I have no idea what it is, but I can imagine. Anyway, it's one of those degree names that universities invent, that doesn't really help students get a job, because no one knows exactly what it is. It may be sad, but all employers want to do is have you select a major as a bin into which they can group you with others: a unique sounding major does zero for the job applicant, but might do quite a lot for the university professor who doesn't feel at home in their current department.

None of this actually bothers me. I am being truthful when I wrote that I like to hear what Bernstein has to say.

What bothers me, and should bother you is this asymmetry: 

• Do you think that if there was a White House Council of Social Welfare, that it would be OK to have an economist on it? 
• Do you think that these degree programs in Social Work and Social Policy employ any economists?
• Do you think any of the main professional outlets for double bass performers — orchestras, symphonies, and philharmonics — would be OK if an economist showed up and started talking about the difference between vibrato and tremolo?
  

BTW: Bernstein's masters is from Hunter College, which is part of CUNY, where Mason works.

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I know far less about Heather Boushey. Google Scholar here we come! 

First, she has a lot more works and citations than I do. That's good.

But, she doesn't work at a university. She works at a think tank or advocacy group.

And she doesn't publish much in peer-reviewed outlets: Feminist Economics [2006] and [2008], Sociology [2009], Review of Social Economy [2008], Review of Political Economy [1997], [2002], and [2008], NWSA Journal [2003], Journal of Poverty [2002], [2006], and [2012], European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies [2015], International Journal of Health Services [2005], Review of Radical Political Economics [2020], New Labor Forum [2010], NCJW Journal [2006], Eastern Economic Journal [2005], Science and Society [2004], Journal of Labor and Society [2004], and that's about it. I am not sure that Juncture [2016], Challenge [2004], [2012], and [2014], Dissent [2012] and [2014] are considered peer-reviewed; I don't think so. Anyway, for someone who has had a Ph.D. for roughly 25 years, and now holds a position in the White House ... this isn't a lot.

She has published a lot of books. The thing is: at most universities, books don't count much towards tenure. The reason is that they are read and approved by editors, not people in your field. 

FWIW: Your Handbook is under contract with a publisher. They've mostly asked me about what I want on the cover. It's not inspiring.

And she has a lot of reports from think tanks and advocacy groups. These sound impressive, but count for very little academically. They can get cited a lot, but the cites are mostly in books (see above) and newspaper articles.

My point is not to argue that Boushey doesn't know her stuff, or isn't active. Instead, it's to make clear that she has not moved in the same circles as most other economists, and pretty much everyone who's ever been a member of the CEA.

Also, recall from my earlier post "Economists of Other Denominations" that one of the issues with Marxist/radical/heterodox/post-Keynesian economists is that it's not a huge group, so they have fewer journals to publish in, fewer peers to review their stuff, and fewer opportunities for co-authoring.

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I think Mason specifically mentioned Bernstein and Boushey for a reason. It is to emphasize a complete break with the economic advice traditional within the Democratic Party. I do not think many non-economists understand this.

In conjunction with my earlier post entitled "Stimulus Misgivings" in which I called Biden's statement that "There is a consensus among economists left, right, and center that ... we can't spend too much" a Trump-worthy lie, I now conclude that the President is being told by non-economists what economists think. I do not think many people understand this.

Lastly, I should mention that the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors is Cecilia Rouse, who has had an admirable economics career. BUT, neither Rouse, nor Bernstein, nor Boushey can be remotely considered a macroeconomist. This is problematic when the White House is kinda' sorta' the ultimate macro institution.