Not good news

If this is true–and I have no reason to believe it isn’t–then one of the few economic voices in the administration that is not a Wall Street insider is leaving her post.

Christina Romer, chairwoman of Pres. Obama‘s Council of Economic Advisers, has decided to resign, according to a source familiar with her plans.

Romer, an economics professor at the University of California (Berkeley) before taking the key admin post, did not respond to repeated calls to her office.

“She has been frustrated,” a source with insight into the WH economics team said. “She doesn’t feel that she has a direct line to the president. She would be giving different advice than Larry Summers [director of the National Economic Council], who does have a direct line to the president.”

“She is ostensibly the chief economic adviser, but she doesn’t seem to be playing that role,” the source said. The WH has been pounded for its faulty forecast that unemployment would not top 8% after its economic stimulus proposal passed.

Instead, the jobless rate is 9.5%, after exceeding 10% last year. It was “a horribly inaccurate forecast,” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant. “You have to wonder why Summers isn’t the one that should be taking the fall. But Larry is a pretty good bureaucratic infighter.”

Romer’s highly respected in the community and I always thought she would bring a voice of reason to the White House. Instead, she always got put in front of the camera trying to explain away economic bad news. I’m not sure who the replacement will be but it I venture a guess to say that it will be some one that plays nice with Geithner and Summers who appear to get their way when ever they can. I’m hoping it won’t be another Wall Street insider, but it would figure. It would also figure if the next one didn’t have a vajajay too. That seems to go along with playing well with the Obama inside team.