Alan Krueger, RIP

Professor Alan Krueger

Alan Krueger died on Saturday. I’m grieving, even though I never met him, and he’d know me … not at all.

Professor Krueger taught at Princeton University for 30 years, minus stints at the U.S. Department of Labor and as the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors for two years during the Obama Administration. But his legacy really involves curiosity and a willingness to dump economic orthodoxy.

I’m not an economist, but many of my best friends are … if an undergraduate degree in economics makes someone an economist. Degrees aside, I’ve spent a chunk of my adult life studying—if deep reading qualifies—the work product of those who no longer accept the notion