Cass Sunstein book before his confirmation as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in order to receive Senate confirmation. Asked by Rudy Takala if Sunstein's views nonetheless persisted in the Obama administration, U.S. Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Michael O'Rielly eluded the question, answering, "Everybody needs a nudge, right?" Sunstein co-authored "Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness" (Yale University Press, 2008) with economist Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago. "Nudge" discusses how public and private organizations can help people make better choices in their daily lives. Thaler and Sunstein argue that People often make poor choices –
Nudge (book) placing healthy foods in a school cafeteria at eye level while putting less-healthy junk food in harder-to-reach places. Individuals are not actually prevented from eating whatever they want, but arranging the food choices that way causes people to eat less junk food and more healthy food. Sunstein and Thaler apply the idea of nudges in the context of choice architecture to propose policy recommendations in the spirit of libertarian paternalism. They have recommendations in the areas of finance, health, the environment, schools, and marriage. They believe these problems can at least be partially addressed by improving the choice architecture. Thaler