President Obama Appoints Austan Goolsbee as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama designated Austan Goolsbee as the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA).

Goolsbee, a long time economic advisor to President Obama, is currently a member of the Council of Economic Advisers and Chief Economist of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

President Obama said, “Austan has been one of my good friends and close economic advisors for many years.  He is one of the finest economists in the country, and he’s worked as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers since we arrived in office.  He’s not just a brilliant economist, he’s someone who has a deep appreciation of how the economy affects everyday people, and he talks about it in a way that’s easily understood.  He already knows and works with the rest of the team very well, and I have complete confidence he’ll do an outstanding job as CEA Chair.”

Goolsbee replaces Dr. Christina Romer as Chair, who last week returned to her teaching career at the University of California at Berkeley.   Goolsbee was previously confirmed by the United States Senate as a member of the CEA and will not need to be reconfirmed by the Senate.

The President made the following announcement today:

Austan Goolsbee, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
Austan Goolsbee most recently served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers. He also serves as chief economist of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.  Goolsbee is the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He was an economic adviser to Barack Obama’s 2004 Senate race before becoming a senior economic adviser to Senator Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign.  Goolsbee was also a member of the panel of Economic Advisers to the Congressional Budget Office, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a research fellow at the American Bar Foundation.  In addition, Goolsbee was a Fulbright Scholar and a recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.  Goolsbee was selected as one of The Financial Times‘ six “Gurus of the Future”/Best under 40 (2005), named one of the Young Global Leaders at the 2005 World Economic Forum, and one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow at the 2002 World Economic Forum.  He was born on August 18, 1969, in Waco, Texas. He received his B.A. summa cum laude in economics from Yale University in 1991, his M.A. in economics from Yale University in 1991, and his Ph.D in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995. He is married with three children.