Keith HennesseyKeith Hennessey is the outgoing chief economic adviser to President Bush and director of the National Economic Council. When Obama takes office, Lawrence Summers will take his place.
“Our assumptions are that the economy will begin to recover early in the next president’s term,” Hennessey recently told CNBC, “but it’s too early to say exactly when.” (I can already hear the cynics among you: he’s just setting up his old boss as the real fixer and the new guy as the lucky inheritor.)
Hennessey held this job for just over a year; for the five years before that he was deputy director of the N.E.C. and spent the previous five years working for Trent Lott. He has also done governmental work in health economics and tax reform; early on, in the private sector, he worked on Symantec’s Q&A database program.
There are an awful lot of economic issues to consider these days — the estate tax and gas tax, the T.A.R.P. drawdown, oil prices – to say nothing of the broader recession and the stock-market miasma.
Feel free to ask Hennessey questions about all these subjects and more. I am guessing you will ask far more questions than he’s able to answer, but whatever the case, we will post his replies here in short order.
Addendum: Hennessey answers your questions here.
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As someone who once, and presumably still, assumes that deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy are good for the economy, why should we believe any of your current assumptions?
On a personal note, is anyone going to pay you to make assumptions in public, despite your dismal record doing so for the public?
How much policy influence did you have?
Do you feel partly responsible for the country’s economic crisis?
How do you assess Bush’s knowledge of (and interest in) economics?
Why do presidents (Clinton and Bush, to be exact) change/rotate their chief economic advisors every 2-3 years?
Which think tank do you intend to hibernate in until 2016?
In every election I have experienced the winner campaigned on cutting waste (Bill Clinton: “Line by Line, Dime by Dime), to Bush and now Obama.
It does not seem to happen. Is this because politicians see merits of the programs and change their mind, or is it Congress forcing it down the President’s throat?
Why doesn’t the government open it’s own bank, instead of allowing the Federal Reserve to contract on behalf of the American public?
Do you feel like you look like Sean Astin: yes, no or maybe, and which was your favorite Lord of the Rings movie?
Have you ever read Freakonomics?
What are the job prospects like (in your opinion) for the outgoing chief economic adviser to President Bush and director of the National Economic Council?
Given that you’ve also worked for Senator Lott, how versed would you say the average Senator, Representative, White House staff is on macroeconomics?
Do you- or any other members of the White House staff- believe that our current income tax rates are at the optimal point on the Laffer curve?