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Behind Obama's Economic Team

Inside Look

Budget Director Orszag is leaving a rowdy bunch.

Despite the administration's moniker “No Drama Obama,” the president's economic team brings to the White House an atmosphere that rivals a wrestling match, according to an inside profile of National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers. Summers dishes to Reuters on his management style, saying the economic advisers at the White House are quite a rowdy bunch. Peter Orszag, Obama’s budget director—who announced he will be leaving the White House in July—is just one of many strong personalities, and Summers said he welcomes challenges to his opinions and doesn’t shy away from confrontation. Jared Bernstein, the chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, said President Obama likes the intense debates among his economic team and "he kind of insists on it. The thing Obama doesn't like is if he feels like he's not being given the full picture and all sides of an argument."

Read it at Reuters

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