It's newsworthy because he's a prominent economic leader who has been at the center of U.S. economic policy, elite academia, and global finance for decades. He's held almost every marquee job an economist can have, Treasury Secretary under Clinton, Director of the National Economic Council under Obama, Chief economist of world bank, president of Harvard, connected at IMF and an influential voice on inflation, interest rates, fiscal policy, and banking regulations. He's a trusted voice in the VC world, was on the board of Square, an advisor at A16z/Andreessen Horowitz and involved in crypto/blockchain as an advisor to one of the major crypto VCs.