"Barack Obama's selection of Jason Furman as a top economic adviser angered unionists and anti-globalization activists. The 37-year-old Harvard Ph.D. is perceived to be a neoliberal aligned with Citigroup executive Robert Rubin, who was Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary. Much of the criticism leveled at Furman is a response to a paper he wrote in 2006. The title, "Wal-Mart: A Progressive Success Story," is more provocative than its content, in which Furman argues that Wal-Mart's discount pricing provides the equivalent of a wage increase for the poor and working poor, who spend a large percentage of their income on food--25.8 percent for the poorest compared to 3.5 percent for the wealthiest.

Furman argues for expanded SCHIP health insurance, Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credit for Wal-Mart employees and their children. Wal-Mart critics deride such benefits as "corporate welfare" for an employer that fails to provide adequate benefits. He also makes an implied argument against unionization: "Wal-Mart does, however, pay significantly lower wages than those earned by one group of employers: unionized grocery workers in major cities. These unionized workers make an estimated 20-40 percent more than Wal-Mart workers, a fact that is reflected in a similar magnitude mark-up of prices at unionized grocery stores."

Most of Furman's paper is a down-the-middle economic analysis. If Furman is closer to Rubin than Robert Reich, the liberal economic voice in the Clinton administration, Obama is at least getting advice from one genuine progressive: University of Texas professor James K. Galbraith." (FYI, The Washington Spectator, July 1, 2008)