American economist turns down top EU job as Macron's criticism reverberates

The European Union says the American candidate to become one of the bloc’s chief economists will now not take up the position because of the political controversy it has stirred. In a letter to the EU's executive Commission released early on Wednesday, Yale economics professor Fiona Scott Morton wrote that she had “determined that the best course of action is for me to withdraw and not take up the Chief Economist position.” French President Emmanuel Macron led the objections to appointing an American to the job. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said she accepted Scott Morton's decision “with regret and hope that she will continue to use her extraordinary skill-set to push for strong competition enforcement.”