Some Liberals Frown at Obama's Economics Team

The media and Wall Street might be thrilled with Obama's economic picks, but not some left-of-center folks. Here are some Daily Kos comments today on the Paul Volcker/Austan Goolsbee selections:

1) "Goolsbee's straight out of the University of Chicago's "free trade" think tank."

2) "Goolsbee' s about as solidly right wing as they come."

3) "Volcker is a questionable choice because he seemed more than willing to let jobs die on the altar of taming inflation."

4) "How do create/Keep 2.5MM Jobs with someone who's paranoid about inflation. The Voice in the chorus argument doesn't hold since he's the chair."

5) "I can only assume that Obama is not his own man at this point, or is ignorant of the real persons he is nominating. Volcker is an advocate of Americans "trimming" their standard of living. He is wall street bankers personified, a plutocrat. Google Volcker and standard of living."

Me: First of all, use of the word "plutocrat" is usually my signal to sign off. Second, it seems to me that most liberals want infrastructure spending,  green energy investment, and healthcare reform.  Obama's picks seem to be on that wavelength. But anyone waiting for them to tear up NAFTA or put tariffs on Chinese goods or push tax rates back to 90 percent, keep waiting.