Obama's business brain trust

Obama enraged labor leaders and liberal activists by appointing Jason Furman to run his economic team.

Furman directed the Hamilton Project, a Brookings Institution-based initiative sponsored by former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, a pariah among hard-core liberals.

Furman has defended free-trade agreements, and at a time when unions were on the warpath against Wal-Mart, he produced a research paper arguing that the chain's low prices are a boon to low-income consumers.

NEXT: Jared Bernstein, director, Economy Policy Institute