Labor Expert Is Right Choice to Lead Obama’s Economic Team: View

With unemployment stuck above 9 percent, the U.S. needs all the job-creation expertise it can get. For that reason, President Barack Obama’s choice of Alan Krueger, an eminent labor economist, to head the Council of Economic Advisers is an inspired one.

Krueger, a Princeton University professor, has built his academic career on the study of labor markets, wage structures and long-term unemployment. He also has strong policy-making credentials. During the first two years of the , he served as chief economist at the Treasury Department, where he helped devise the first stimulus package, the cash-for-clunkers effort and the Build America Bond program.