Mr. Sunstein Leaves Washington

So my old friend Cass Sunstein is quitting his job regulating America to go back to Harvard. It's a big enough story to get a whole article in The New York Times.

Near the end they get around to explaining who he is:

The polymathic Mr. Sunstein has written or co-written dozens of books and articles on subjects ranging from climate change to animal rights and is one of the most frequently cited legal thinkers in America. One of his most influential popular works, written with Richard H. Thaler, the behavioral economist, was "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness." The book’s thesis is that gentle, low-cost signals — like putting fruit at the beginning rather than the end of a cafeteria line, or making participation in retirement savings plans the default position rather than an option — are more effective than the heavy hand of government regulation.

Is that the book's thesis? That we should take cumbersome government regulation and replace it with greater freedom? Or is it more about taking situations where we've got complete freedom and replacing it with just a little less?

I don't know, but I'm not nearly as confident as The New York Times that Nudge is about giving us more choice.

PS Even later in the article we learn that Sunstein's wife Samantha Power, who also works for the administration, is taking maternity leave.  Talk about burying the lead. Congratulations, Cass.