UPDATE 2-Top White House economist Goolsbee steps down

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) - Top White House economist Austan Goolsbee said on Monday he was stepping down, marking the exit of one of President Barack Obama's closest aides at a time when new signs of weakness have emerged in the U.S. economy.

Less than a year after he was named chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Goolsbee plans to return to his teaching job at the University of Chicago, the Obama administration said in a statement.

Goolsbee's departure leaves Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as the sole remaining senior member of the original economic team.

Goolsbee and Obama got to know each other at the University of Chicago, where the president had been a lecturer in constitutional law. Goolsbee advised Obama's campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2004 and his 2008 presidential campaign.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/07/usa-obama-goolsbee-idUSN0629123020110607

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

...intelligent and insightful critique.

30 years of Friedmanomics is enough.

Now, send Timmeh packing too.

... what you are talking about? Probably not.

Do you know what is being discussed vis a vis the Chicago School, Friedman et al ?

The University of Chicago is one of the world's great research universities. It is not an ideological boot camp where the professors indoctrinate their students in the doctrines and dogmas of long gone professors. It is an institution dedicated to critical thinking, discovery and research that advances mankind's knowledge in new directions.

The "Chicago School" of economics, to the extent that it exists, no more resides at the University of Chicago (or anywhere else) than the "Impressionist School" of painting resides in Paris. Simply because an economics professor is at the UofC does not mean that she holds to any particular school of thought in economics. And whatever her thinking might be, a professor at the University of Chicago would NEVER be doctrinaire or dogmatically ideological.

It just isn't that kind of place.

@ U of Chicago under Coase and Knight and later their protege Milton Friedman. Far more than one can make an equivalent claim tying Austrian School econ to the University of Salamanca or Keynesianism to King's College, Cambridge.

Further, Goolsbee is actually an adherent of Chicago School economics.

... he knows a lot more than you do.

... but I don't see any evidence of that.

However, I wouldn't mind if these bastards got hurt a bit on their way out.

Bunch of fascists, too. Leo Strauss taught there, as half of the bush administration were his students. U of C is a vipers nest of the Ayn Rand variety.

That viper's nest is my Alma Mater.

There's:

James K Galbraith

Robert Reich

Nouriel Roubini

Jeffrey Sachs

Joseph Stiglitz

Robert Shiller

Paul Krugman

Okay, that's 7. How many do we need?

Baker, Joseph Stiglitz, Michael Albert, or...? Whomever it is let us hope that it's someone who can get Obama to focus on jobs, jobs, jobs.

great at explaining things well, speaking clearly, making sense to ears of main street. I thought he should have been out there a lot and he could explain to people why some spending does make good financial sense in hard times (like every $1 of food stamps creates $1.82 or whatever) and how unemployment stimulates economy X times more than upper class tax cuts and so on.

I'm not good at it but he was. He was clear and humorous and didn't sound like he was talking down. He is sorely needed now,
Geithner is a shitty communicator as well as the rest of the bad stuff he is

Or are the rats jumping ship?

Couldn't even get the numbers right.

I'm glad he's going.

Citing cuts to fuel subsidies and scholarships, Stewart said it seemed "you" had adopted Republican views.

Goolsbee tried to run a line of bs past Stewart--and the American people--about how fuel subsidies had increased in the past when oil prices had risen. However, said Goolsbee, the price of oil had gone down, while subsidies remained at the higher level. Therefore, according to Goolsbee, this was more of an adjustment.

Stewart replied, "Yes, the price of oil per barrel has gone down, but the price of home heating oil has increased substantially; and these are home heating oil subsidies you're cutting." (Or words to that effect.)

His attempted fast talking deception exposed, all Goolsbee did was shriek, "I can't believe how well prepared you are!" He never addressed Stewart's substantive point and, unfortunately, Stewart changed the subject to scholarships.


It's fine with me if the door hits you--hard--on your way out, you deceiving POS. I just wish you were taking your Republican bosses with you. And I hope karma is over you, like white on rice, for the rest of your life.

and I hope Goolsbee was propelled by a well-placed kick.

The level of competence just doubled in the White House. Of course, twice nothing is still nothing, but one less idiot has got to help.