Obama names Jeffrey Zients as top economic adviser

[Surya Gayatri]

Source: France24 (AFP)


AFP - President Barack Obama announced Friday he would name Jeffrey Zients, a management expert who has led his budget office, as his new top economic adviser from January 1.

Zients, who twice served as acting budget director under Obama as well as the government's chief performance officer, will replace Gene Sperling as director of the National Economic Council.

The appointment comes as Obama faces a constant fight with Republicans over boosting the economy and cutting the government's debt and deficit over the final three years of his administration.

"Jeff has a sterling reputation as a business leader, and he earned the admiration and respect of everyone he worked with during his four years in leadership positions at the Office of Management and Budget," Obama said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20130913-obama-names-jeffrey-zients-top-economic-adviser

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Where does this guy stand on bread & butter progressive/liberal economic issues? I'm afraid this is the first I've heard of him.

[Roland99]

1. Not a Clintonite, according to the WaPo

Last edited Fri Sep 13, 2013, 01:11 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/13/three-things-to-know-about-jeffrey-zients-obamas-next-top-economic-adviser/

[Surya Gayatri]

2. Thanks for the link. At least he's of more recent vintage than

the Clinton clan. I expect we'll hear more about him shortly.

[DURHAM D]

5. Great - he got his start with Mitt.

[karynnj]

23. He was born in Nov 1966 - and another thread said he worked at Bain in 1988-1990

That would almost certainly be his first job out of Duke.

[DURHAM D]

25. That sounds right.

To be honest when I noticed that he graduated from Duke that didn't really make me feel any better.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Gosh..so far he sounds like a good guy.

Wiki has a brief outline on him.
Notable for being an expert in streamlining and cost cutting of businesses/gove't programs.
This could be a good or bad thing, depending on points of view.

Notable in that his best man at his wedding to a South African woman was Nelson Mandela.

From Wiki:

According to Obama, his assignment was to help “streamline processes, cut costs, and find best practices throughout" the U.S. government.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Zients

[Surya Gayatri]

4. Thanks, dixie, I wanted to consult Wiki, but didn't

have time before posting this. Being good buds with Mandela is a pretty good recommendation in itself.

[karynnj]

24. Nelson Mandela as a best man - that's pretty impressive all alone

[seabeckind]

6. Read his resume

Entrepenuer?

I guess under the current definition that would be investment banker who takes other people's money and puts it at risk underwriting ideas from some other guy. Please note that nowhere in that definition is there any hint that he's the idea guy.

His decisions about what to invest in have absolutely nothing to do with whether they are worthwhile but only whether they will be profitable to the people who let his use their money. And most times the "investment" is sucking the value out of an existing company.

I am assuming that he is much like Romney.

In his current job he is supposed to have been responsible for streamlining and making gov't more efficient. Ever since Reagan that has been pseudotalk for contracting out.

In the news today I saw where McCaskill is jumping all over NNSA over the security and operations at the gov't nuclear facilities. Apparently the same thing has been going on there that's been going on at NSA. And then there's all those problems with procurements at the pentagon and the computer systems at VA and IRS.

Isn't that what this guy was supposed to oversee?

IOW, just another good ole boy network assignment. I don't know why I ever expect anything else. Made my first comment like this late in 2008.

SSDD

And don't bother waving your silly pompom in my face. It just makes me sneeze.

[Surya Gayatri]

7. Beg your pardon? Never been near a cheerleading pom-pom in my life!

Was that remark intended for me?

[seabeckind]

11. Depends

Are you part of the Obama cheer squad?

After rereading I realized that perhaps my comment might have been taken personally when there was no such intent. It was meant for the general audience. The pompom people have been pretty loud lately. Makes it very hard to concentrate on the game.

[Surya Gayatri]

15. No, but neither am I part of the BO bashing brigade.

Fair and balanced--that was my motto before Fox preempted it.

[Scootaloo]

26. Oh, that means you're an Obama-basher

Been there myself. You either agree totally with everything on demand, or you hate everything about the guy. It's a tragedy that DU has such an infestation of reactionaries, but...

How's Merle?

[Surya Gayatri]

27. Yeah, there sure seem to be a hell of a lot of knees jerking around this place! LOL!

Except for Merle, who obviously has no knees to jerk!

[Roland99]

8. 4th Wealthiest Member of the Executive Branch

http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/CIDsummary.php?CID=N99999905&year=2011

$56million - $198million estimated

[Surya Gayatri]

9. Wouldn't consider personal wealth as an immediate

disqualifier. Depends how he amassed it.

[valerief]

10. Amassing so much is an obscenity. nt

[Surya Gayatri]

13. In the absolute, I would tend to agree. OTOH, let's

say he married into a small fortune and made some really savvy investments in some cinderella start-up.
There are ways and there are ways...

[valerief]

20. Amassing means keeping it, not sharing it. That's the obscenity. nt

[seabeckind]

12. It is a matter of attitude and POV

An investment banker has an economic reality much different from the industrial POV.

It's the wall street/main street business.

In one breath we hear a speech about providing opportunities to main street and behind the doors of the white house there are none but wall street.

Where is labor's voice heard?

[Surya Gayatri]

14. Agree that labor is under-represented in O's Admin.

That being said, see post N°13.

[lumpy]

28. Many of our better leaders have come from great wealth.

Watch out got people on DU who are just looking to argue about anything. Why bother.

[Surya Gayatri]

29. Word!

[Enrique]

21. how else could he buy his way into our government?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303644004577523071816686902.html

After Mr. Zients donated to 2008 Democratic presidential candidates Mr. Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, an unexpected door opened. Mr. Obama set up a new position, "chief performance officer," to cut bureaucracy, but the original nominee was forced to withdraw over a tax controversy. A fellow entrepreneur, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, says he floated Mr. Zients's name.

[hfojvt]

16. I just note the way they phrase that

"has a sterling reputation as a business leader"

as opposed to somebody who

"has a sterling reputation as a labor leader"

As in the economic philosophy is about "business" and NOT about "the workers".

[Surya Gayatri]

17. True that...

[JRLeft]

18. ^This, POB has appointed some fucked up people over anf over again. Tom Vilsack, Larry Summers,

Margaret Hamburg. and many more.

[Carolina]

19. more evidence of

who BHO really is

Obama Appoints Bain Capital Consultant to Top Post

Zients' former employer was slammed by Obama campaign for outsourcing jobs, closing plants, devastating US communities

President Obama has appointed as chief White House economic adviser a former executive of Bain Capital—the management consulting company previously headed by former presidential candidate Mitt Romney that was heavily criticized by the Obama campaign as an 'outsourcing pioneer' responsible for closing plants, devastating U.S. communities, and even contributing to the deaths of disenfranchised workers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1014&pid=593956

[Enrique]

22. "one CEO thought he was a Republican"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303644004577523071816686902.html

Along the way, Mr. Zients has become a kind of ambassador to the business community, which has famously strained relations with the White House. He is Mr. Obama's liaison with the CEOs on the president's Jobs Council. One CEO thought he was a Republican. Others have said they want him to run their companies one day.

[Surya Gayatri]

30. Then again, keep in mind that RWers often try

to co-opt Dem successes and pretend that they had the idea in the first place.

Now, the successes of the Clinton era were largely due to Repub Congressional policies, don't cha know?