Austan Goolsbee to leave White House (Abandon Ship!)

Politico ^ | 6/6/11 7:26 PM ED | MIKE ALLEN

[TSgt]

Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, plans to return to teaching economics at the University of Chicago this fall, the White House announced Monday night.

Goolsbee has been on leave for four years from the university’s Booth School of Business and could have lost his tenured position at Chicago, where he was a professor for 14 years before joining the administration, if he did not return, an official said.

Goolsbee, one of Obama’s longest serving aides, was an economic adviser on the 2004 Senate campaign, and the senior economic adviser on the 2008 presidential campaign.He was appointed to the Council of Economic Advisers when Obama became president, and was made chairman when Christina Romer resigned last September to return to the University of California at Berkeley.

“Since I first ran for the U.S. Senate, Austan has been a close friend and one of my most trusted advisers,” President Barack Obama said in the White House’s announcement. “Over the past several years, he has helped steer our country out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and although there is still much work ahead, his insights and counsel have helped lead us toward an economy that is growing and creating millions of jobs. He is one of America’s great economic thinkers.”

Goolsbee’s departure once again puts the president’s economic team in flux. National Economic Council chairman Larry Summers left the administration at the beginning of the year, replaced by Gene Sperling, who served in that job under President Bill Clinton. Jared Bernstein, Vice President Biden’s chief economic adviser, left last month.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is the only senior official remaining from the economic team that inherited a financial crisis and recession when Obama took office.

In the past few months, Goolsbee has been one of the few White House officials who has felt comfortable discussing economic issues on television. Colleagues say he lightens up the West Wing, and he made his mark on social D.C. when he won a “Funniest Celebrity in Washington” contest.

“While I am looking forward to returning home to Chicago, I will always be proud of the years I have spent working for this President,” Goolsbee said. “I believe that his judgment, his courage in confronting the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes, and his commitment to the American people have made a tremendous difference for the nation.”

Bloomberg News first reported that Goolsbee was considering returning to Chicago.

[Common Sense 101]

Absolutely unfriggin’ believable... this pencil-necked, libtard, a$$wip actually taught ECONOMICS?! AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO?! Milton Friedman must be spinning in his grave... so much for the “Chicago School of Economics”.

[Hoodat]

Goolsbee was well above his pay grade. He knows nothing about economics.

[grey_whiskers]

Time to resurrect a vanity which puts Obaama's economic "team" (and I use the term loosely, like the Detroit Lions mentioned upthread) in its place:

(Vanity) On Beyond Zillion, by Dr. Sue-us (with a nod to Fredrich Hayek)

Cheers!

[caww]

Get a load of Bo’s parting words:

Ob said....

..... has helped steer our country OUT of the worst economic crisis

..... has helped lead us toward an ECONOMY THAT IS GROWING

..... CREATING MILLIONS OF JOBS

Makes you wonder what planet they think they’re on.

[Scotswife]

awesome! - he gets to go back and screw up how many kids who think they’re learning something useful?

[Uncle Miltie]

"Austan Goolsbee"

Isn't he a villain from Orwell's "1984?"

[Friendofgeorge]

This guy reminds me of the economics Professor in the movie BACK TO SCHOOL.

Rodney Dangerfield has a lot of fun at the professors expense.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is the only senior official remaining from the economic team that inherited a financial crisis and recession created by reckless spending by people who think like they do when Obama took office, and has done sweet f/a to fix the problem due to reliance on discredited economic theories.

Boy, did THAT paragraph need fixin'.

[Carling]

The only class Goolsbee can teach at this point is How to Destroy the US Economy 101.

[Semperfiwife]

Go back to teaching what?? 2 plus 2 is 4,000,000,000,000.?? Just what those minds of mush need to bring on another economic crisis. Most can’t balance a checkbook today and the government surely can’t either. We are screwed as a nation.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Thank God. This guy is the biggest friggin’ tool I’ve ever seen. If this means I never have to sit through one of his moronic, childish video catastrophes, I’m a happy camper. Hell, if it means I don’t have to see one for even a few years, I’m okay with that.

[skinkinthegrass]

He won the “Funniest celebrity in washington” -
probably for his work on the economy

yhea, maybeso
...but WE (the) U.S. taxpayers are paying the bills / fees.
....so much for W.H. Humor.

[SunkenCiv]

I was hoping he'd leave it under a sheet, damn. Probably related to the Peter Diamond denouement.

Couple of links from leftish writer Ezra Klein -- Goolsbee's columns for Slate and his version of what taxes should be. Thanks TSgt.

[skinkinthegrass]

LL!

[Cosmo]

Let me get this straight: A university would terminate a professors tenure because he spent too much time working For Potus? Sure...
Just suggesting such a thing tells you the truth still remains to be told.

[Red_Devil 232]

"Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, plans to return to teaching economics at the University of Chicago ..."

Those poor, poor minds of mush he will be teaching!

[Lazlo in PA]

Boy, that is too bad that this toad is leaving. I was rather looking forward to "Washington DC's Funniest Man" giving me another Glenn Beck styled presentation on how fantastic the economy is again. He did such a swell job last year doing this.

Ahh, Good Times. Good Times.

[hsalaw]

Goolsbee has been on leave for four years from the university’s Booth School of Business and could have lost his tenured position at Chicago, where he was a professor for 14 years before joining the administration, if he did not return, an official said.

That's got to be the weakest excuse I've ever heard.

[spokeshave]

what’s the old saying... those who can’t do, teach?

Yeah....and those that can't teach.....administrate.

[americanophile]

The fact that we have nothing but a bunch of academics explains half the problem.