President Barack Obama has had lots of people angry with him about how the economic system hasn’t developed at all. In the recent jobs speech he delivered in Cleveland, he appeared to be somewhat disconnected when it comes to understanding “the plight of the middle class,” as Arianna Huffington puts it. ”Not everything we’ve done over the last couple of years has worked as easily as we had hoped, and I am keenly aware that not all our policies are popular,” was what Obama said. This is probably the reason, says the Wall Street Journal, that Austan Goolsbee was given the position of chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors. Goolsbee’s nomination has already cleared the Senate.
Austan Goolsbee was an advisory board member and university economist
Goolsbee works at the University of Chicago business school where he is an economist while also working on Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board as the executive director. Many speculate, says the WSJ, that as a result of personal friendship and association with the administration’s inner circle, Goolsbee got the job as the White House Council of Economic Advisers chairman. Goolsbee is replacing Christina Romer. She was the Economic Advisers chairwoman before.
During Obama’s first year, Goolsbee is said to have helped draft some policies. The WSJ reports that these include health care access, higher education aid and also the energy push. The Huffington Post explains that these were all for the middle-class economic security as part of the president’s “New Foundation”.
Anything Austan Goolsbee wants may not be what we want
The economy does not seem to be recovering as quickly as hoped when unemployment in America is nevertheless huge. Outrage has been palpable, even in Democratic circles, where the potential firings of Treasure Secretary Tim Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers have been discussed openly by lawmakers. The WSJ explains that hiring on Goolsbee as the White House Council of Economic Advisors leader is not going to change anything we don’t like.
Find more info on this subject
Sun Times
blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2010/09/obama_cleveland_jobs_speech_tr.html”>Chicago Sun-Times
Huffington Post
huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/obama-insists-he-made-the_b_711515.html?utm_source=DailyBrief and utm_campaign=091010 and utm_medium=email and utm_content=FeatureTitle
Wall Street Journal
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704644404575482661827896950.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories
Austan Goolsbee on CNN’s “Late Edition,” Sept. 21, 2008
youtube.com/watch?v=TKvMfVntY2g
