Next to Cher he is the most overrated.
Not unless Andrea Mitchell burped before getting out from under his desk....
The successor to Paul Volcker was similarly said to have a tough act to follow. Greenspan now is thought to be as good.
There are plenty of good candidates out there. William Poole might be another academic candidate.
It should also be noted that while Feldstein often has written and come across with conservative leanings, however, in practise he moderates alot.
He was one of the people who tried to get Reagan to raise taxes, and while he talks pro-growth, he was a critic of Reagans while he advised him.
Krugman for the most part, often speaks highly of Feldstein at some times (though he critizies him at other times).
Before Jack Kemp Republicans had no sensible economic policy at all; all they did was oppose deficits - and after the Democrats had jacked up spending that merely amounted to a policy of advocating tax increases to cover the deficit.
And after the 1980 election Kemp advocated the selloff of some of the gold in Fort Knox. Over the succeeding years the price of gold declined dramatically as the Reagan-Kemp-Roth economic policy succeeded dramatically.
I doubt he will be considered, but for sure we could do a lot worse. If you restrict your attention to economists, Robert Mundell is top notch. Even if he did win a Nobel prize . . .
Alan was once a "gold bug". Now, however, he has enabled
the consumer economy by printing tons of greenbacks and maintaining that inflation is only 2%. (It's more like 8%)