The president-elect is doing just fine without them.
President-elect Donald Trump has got the message that economics is known as the dismal science, and so far he's signed up fewer academic economists than prior presidents. The only one he's hired is Peter Navarro, professor of economics at the University of California at Irvine, to direct a new White House National Trade Council.
Economists are aghast. According to New York Times contributor Justin Wolfers, the annual American Economic Association meeting in Chicago earlier this month featured "somber analyses, huddled hallway conversations and pointed asides … the major theme was a sense of anxiety."
Wolfers' partner is Betsey Stevenson, a member of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. Of course all their Democrat friends in the halls of the AEA meetings are going to be worried about Trump, for whose transition team I'm currently volunteering.
It's not as though economists have done such a great job advising Obama. The rate of GDP growth is well below average, and labor force participation – the share of Americans either employed or looking for work – has steadily declined to 1970s levels since Obama took office.
Trump's platform for increasing economic growth is to lower individual and corporate tax rates and reduce regulation. These are standard solutions to problems of lack of growth. Trump does not need economists to tell him this. It is obvious.
Trump also wants to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He does not need an economist to tell him that premiums will rise by 25 percent next year and that only about 12 million are enrolled on the exchanges, compared to a CBO forecast of 24 million. Many economists helped write the health care law, and it has not lived up to their predictions.
In his book, "Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America," Trump describes the need for more competition in the provision of health insurance, including competition across state lines. Economists such as James Capretta, Thomas Miller and John Goodman have proposed these solutions.
Trump wants to have more school choice, which will enable low-income children to have better skills and earn more. This is a standard economic solution to the problem of a poorly-performing service. Just as the quality of telephones rose when Ma Bell's monopoly was taken away, so the quality of schools will rise when they are required to compete for students.
Trump has named a talented team to improve the economy. These individuals have been successful in their own fields – far more successful than the average economist.
Take Wilbur Ross, for example, who has been nominated for commerce secretary. Ross has turned around many companies, and has a net worth of about $2.5 billion to show for it. Practically no economist is a multi-billionaire. That's the kind of person that is needed to turn around the American economy, not someone who writes academic articles in scholarly journals.
Then, take Steven Mnuchin, Trump's pick for treasury secretary. Mnuchin used to be on the management committee at Goldman Sachs. He also founded hedge funds and rebuilt the failed IndyMac into OneWest Bank. Taking real risks with hedge funds and turning a troubled bank into a successful one teaches you a lot about the economy.
As secretary of labor Trump has chosen Andy Puzder, who has run two fast-food chains, Hardee's and Carl's Jr. Puzder has had to meet a payroll and knows first-hand what prevents companies from hiring and promoting. There's no better qualification for getting the labor markets working again.
For regulatory czar Trump has picked Carl Icahn, who has founded numerous companies and given away more money than most economists earn in their lifetimes.
If, as economists teach their students, earnings are a measure of success and talent, then Trump is doing just fine with his appointments. The economics professors at the American Economic Association meetings should be overjoyed.
This piece originally appeared at U.S. News & World Report
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Diana Furchtgott-Roth is a senior fellow and director of Economics21. She also serves on the transition team for President-elect Donald Trump. Follow her on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in U.S. News and World Report