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PrintSeptember 10, 2010
Another academic for Obama policy post
President Obama is set to name Austan Goolsbee as the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to replace Christina Romer.
Who is Austan Goolsbee? He has spent his entire career in government and academia. Among the jobs he held was Senior Economist at the Progressive Policy Institute (the name speaks for itself). He is a personal friend of Barack Obama and was a professor at the University of Chicago when Mr. Obama taught law there. He was an advisor to Obama's Senate campaign in 2004 and the presidential campaign in 2008.
Mr. Goolsbee is known for his work on tax policy and the economics of the internet, rather than the broader macroeconomics (which will really come in handy in dealing with the current state of the US economy).
This appointment indicates that the President has no intention of changing course or of hearing, much less listening to opposing voices. Those that continue to live with the hope that Mr. Obama will move to the center and embrace solutions that may help the economy are delusional.
There continues to be no one in the cabinet or the President's economic team that has had any substantive business experience or has live in the real world outside government or academia. This appointment may satisfy the President's desire to have another sycophant around him but it will do nothing to reinstitute confidence either domestically or internationally.
