Commerce

Paul Krugman

The New York Times columnist won the economics prize in 2008 for “his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.” Krugman founded “new trade theory,” explaining why countries that make the same types of goods trade with each other anyway and benefit from it. Though he might grumble about not running Treasury, he’d probably push for more aggressive policies ensuring that U.S. companies can easily sell to emerging markets such as China.