10 Things You Didn’t Know About Peter Orszag
President-elect Barack Obama named Orszag as head of the Office of Management and Budget
1. Peter Orszag was born in Boston in 1968 to parents Reba and Steven. His father is the Percey F. Smith Professor of Mathematics at Yale.
2. Peter Orszag graduated summa cum laude in economics from Princeton University and has master's and doctoral degrees from the London School of Economics, which he attended as a Marshall scholar.
3. After leaving the White House, where he was an economic adviser to President Bill Clinton, he and three other Clinton economic advisers—his brother Jonathan Orszag, Joseph Stiglitz, and Laura D'Andrea Tyson—founded the economic and public policy consulting company Sebago Associates.
4. He is a protégé of Robert Rubin, the former treasury secretary.
5. During his years as a senior fellow for economic studies at the Brookings Institute, he directed the Hamilton Project, which aims to increase opportunities for broad-based wealth, economic security, and enduring growth.
6. He has been director of the Congressional Budget Office since January 2007, focusing primarily on healthcare policy and climate change.
7. He has coauthored or coedited numerous scholarly articles and books, including Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach (2004).
8. He was recently honored with his election to the National Academies of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.
9. He spends his spare time listening to country music, reading history and biographies, and he is an avid runner, having participated in a number of marathons and half marathons.
10. He is divorced and has two young children.
Sources:
- Congressional Budget Office profile
- National Journal
- New York Times
- National Academy of Social Insurance profile
Reader Comments
family history
it would be interesting to know which of his ancestors and when they have left Hungary, during the Nazi influence in Europe, Jews often changed their name to a more national sounding name, hence a Jew with an obviously Hungarian name hiding the fact that they were Jewish. These families were very Hungarian, and they were proud to be Hungarian and Jew, just had to hide their religion and origin because of the political persecutions.
Republican
There's no mention of his political preferences either. Before reading the Top 10 I had thought he must be Republican because he has done everything possible to undermine the Administrations attempts to reform health care and climate change. I was right - he served under Bush, Cheney & Co for two years in this position before President Obama was elected. He appears to be a traitor to the Administration's objectives and probably should NOT be there.
Peter Orzag
Is he also Jewish?
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