Congratulations, Keith

President Bush has appointed Keith Hennessey to replace Al Hubbard, who recently resigned as the head of the National Economic Council. I worked closely with Keith for two years, when he was the #2 person at the NEC, and I can attest that he is an excellent choice.

Keith has spent most of his career as a Washington policy wonk, after getting a math degree at Stanford and a public policy degree at Harvard's Kennedy School. But, like most readers of this blog, in his heart he is an econonerd. I recall that in his spare time (a precious commodity for those working in the White House), Keith was reading David Romer's graduate-level textbook, Advanced Macroeconomics, just for fun.

I also remember some advice Keith gave me as I left my Washington post to return to Harvard: Start a blog.