Recommended Reading

Noam Scheiber's profile in The New Republic of Zeke Emanuel is pretty great, in part because Emanuel is an entertaining character who is going to play a significant role in the Obama administration's health care reform efforts. But the piece also has a great look at what kind of place the Office of Management and Budget is these days. I have to say, it sounds kind of fun:

Other government agencies also have their share of academic types, of course. But OMB's may be unique in their range of interests. Sunstein, who will be the government's "regulatory czar" pending Senate confirmation, has written about everything from law and economics to the Internet and democracy to Moneyball. Liebman, who is OMB's fourth-ranking official, is part of the health care team and spends considerable mental energy helping incorporate behavioral economics into administration policy. (He recently convened an in-house seminar on the subject. ) This collection of personnel can sometimes make OMB feel more like the RAND Corporation than the administration's in-house budget scold.