Krueger appointed to tackle America’s lingering jobs crisis
AMERICAN President Barack Obama yesterday recruited a top labour economist to take on the battle against the country’s stubbornly high levels of unemployment.
Alan Krueger – a prolific author of many economic texts – has been appointed as the White House’s new chief economist, as Obama leads up to his much-vaunted plan for jobs.
“Next week I will be laying out a series of steps that Congress can take immediately to put more money in the pockets of working families and middle class families, to make it easier for small businesses to hire people, to put construction crews to work rebuilding our nation’s roads and railways and airports,” Obama said.
Krueger, an economist from Princeton, has largely focused on labour market issues during his career, yet is most well-known for his 2007 book: “What Makes a Terrorist?”
“International terrorists are more likely to come from moderate-income countries than poor ones,” Krueger wrote, shooting down the presumed link between economic deprivation and terrorism.
Krueger is no stranger to the White House, having previously worked under former President Bill Clinton.