It’s good news that Stephen Miran has been nominated by Donald Trump to be the chairman of the CEA.

The president-elect notes that:

Steve was a Senior Advisor for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department during my First Term and received his Ph.D. In Economics from Harvard University.

Oddly, Trump does not mention that Miran wrote a few times for National Review Capital Matters, which by itself makes Miran a splendid choice for this role, once held by Kevin Hassett, who will himself be serving as the director of the National Economic Council (NEC).

In its biography of Miran, the Manhattan Institute describes him as both a fellow there and a senior strategist at a major investment firm, working “at the intersection of economic policy and investing.” The blend of disciplines that is a notable feature of Miran’s résumé should add considerably to the value he can bring, as the new administration navigates an economy in which the country’s massive debt burden will mean paying careful attention to the financial markets that fund it. With the debt standing now at over $36 trillion, any increase in interest rates owing to missteps in Washington would prove very expensive indeed. Economic policy does not operate in a vacuum.

Some more details from MI’s bio:

Previously, [Miran] was senior advisor for economic policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he assisted with fiscal support to the economy during the pandemic recession.

Miran’s academic work on fiscal policy has been published in the American Economic Journal, and his opinion writing on fiscal policy, monetary policy, economics, and markets has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Bloomberg, National Review, and elsewhere. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, where he was a student of Marty Feldstein. He received a B.A. from Boston University, where he studied economics, philosophy, and mathematics.

In his post on X thanking the president-elect for his nomination, Miran added that he was:

Look[ing] forward to working to help implement the President’s policy agenda to create a booming, noninflationary economy that brings prosperity to all Americans!

Good to see that “noninflationary” in there. Among Miran’s writings on inflation over the years, it is encouraging to read this necessary reminder from 2021 on how inflation can reduce taxable capital gains to an illusion, and to read this from 2024 on how the fixation on specific inflation targets of questionable real world usefulness can lead the Fed astray. The “pursuit of false precision,” Miran observes, “reduces the quality of outcomes.”

That’s an excellent principle with applications far beyond inflation targeting.