WASHINGTON — The Obama administration Monday named Princeton University professor Alan Krueger as its choice for chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
If confirmed to a council seat, Krueger, formerly assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy, would succeed Austan Goolsbee, who stepped down from the White House economic team earlier this month to return to his teaching position at the University of Chicago.
Krueger has taught at Princeton since 1987, and has served as the chief economist at both Treasury and the Labor Department. He was at Treasury from 2009 to 2010, during which time his work included helping to launch the new small business lending fund.
"In the first two years of this administration as we were dealing with the effects of a complex and fast-moving financial crisis — a crisis that threatened a second Great Depression — Alan's counsel as chief economist at the Treasury Department proved invaluable," President Obama said at the White House announcement of Krueger's nomination.
