Why Is Macro So Hard? (Here We Go Again) Another Economist Who Isn't an Economist At All

OpenAI has hired their first Chief Economist.

That person is Aaron Chatterji, a professor from the business school at Duke.

His CV is available on online. Here's some highlights:

• He was a member of the National Economic Council in the Biden White House (that's the office that's mostly attorneys)
• He was Chief Economist at the Department of Commerce (you'd think they might know better)
• He was a member of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Obama White House (OK, that's good)
• At Duke, he's listed as a Professor of Strategy in their business school. BTW: Duke has a Department of Economics (full of economists), but it's not in their business school.
• He held a visiting position at Stanford where the title was Professor of Public Policy
• He got a Ph.D. from Berkeley in "Business and Public Policy"
• He got a  BA in economics from Cornell.
• Of his 33 journal articles, the most popular venue (by far) is Strategic Management Journal.

What's my point in all this? I'm pointing out a weird conjunction of events: a general feeling that the economy is not doing well, along with a propensity to put people in charge of economic decisions who aren't economists. If everyone always felt the economy was doing OK, I don't think this would be a problem. As it is, it seems like a red flag to me: why is it so important to call people economists when they aren't?