Boskin: "I Have a Lot of Strong Principles"

By Richard Hornik/Washington

The title suggests a position of great influence: chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. In the past few Administrations, however, those who held the post tended to wind up as voices in the wilderness rather than confidants in the Oval Office. But George Bush's choice for the post, Stanford University Professor Michael Boskin, 43, is a trusted adviser and an open- minded scholar who could help restore genuine authority to the job. Says Robert Litan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution: "For the first time in recent memory, the incoming chairman is someone who was deeply involved during the campaign."

The personable Boskin was one of the main architects of Bush's flexible- freeze plan for cutting the budget deficit without raising taxes. To make ^ the freeze work, the Bush team would have to limit increases on most domestic spending to the inflation rate and at the same time boost economic growth and reduce interest rates. Many economists think that combination would be quite tricky to arrange. Says Lawrence Summers, a Harvard professor and former adviser to Michael Dukakis: "I would not want to skate on a flexibly frozen lake."

While Boskin fits into the conservative range of the economic spectrum, he is no ideologue. Born in New York City, Boskin earned his three degrees at Berkeley. Says he: "I am eclectic, but I have a lot of strong principles." His precepts center on the belief that "market forces work best, but there are situations where they don't work perfectly." Boskin's primary concern about the U.S. economy is its low savings and investment rate, a problem he attributes partly to the high deficits of the Reagan era. The economist concedes that the Reagan Administration's tax cuts did not inspire the increased saving his research says they should have, but he maintains his faith in the incentive power of such policies.

Boskin's most controversial policy preference is reflected in his call for changes in programs that in some cases amount to handouts for the well-off, including Social Security and agricultural subsidies. In his 1987 book, Reagan and the Economy, Boskin wrote, "Welfare for the wealthy simply can no longer be afforded." But he realizes that middle-class entitlement programs are political nitroglycerin, and he has no intention of embarrassing Bush by launching a public crusade.

While Boskin seems assured of having Bush's ear, he will have to share it with two other, better-known members of the President's economic team: Richard Darman, the designated head of the Office of Management and Budget, and Nicholas Brady, the Treasury Secretary. Darman has already emerged as Bush's chief strategist for the coming slugfest with Congress over the budget deficit; Brady, a close friend of the President's, has staked out Wall Street reform and U.S. competitiveness as his turf. But Boskin may hold his own; he has a rapport with the President that Darman lacks and more conceptual depth than Brady.

Most of his colleagues are pleased that Boskin was selected, viewing his appointment as a sign that the Bush Administration will be more accessible to outside ideas than its predecessor was. Boskin certainly hopes that is the case: "I've always taken very seriously the research of all schools of < thought. I didn't start out presuming they were wrong, because I wasn't wed to one camp or another." That sort of thinking should be a boon to the Bush Administration as it grapples with deficits and other problems that so far have proved too big and intractable for one narrow philosophy to solve.