Austan Goolsbee resigning as Obama’s economic adviser, returning to Chicago
BY LYNN SWEET June 6, 2011 9:12PM
FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2008, file photo, Austan Goolsbee listens as President-elect Barack Obama, not pictured, speaks at a news conference in Chicago. The White House says Goolsbee, a longtime adviser to Obama, will resign his post as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers this summer to return to teaching at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
Updated: September 29, 2011 12:27AM
WASHINGTON — Austan Goolsbee, chairman of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers — who has advised Obama since he was an Illinois Senate candidate — will leave the White House later this year to return to the University of Chicago business school next fall.
“Since I first ran for the U.S. Senate, Austan has been a close friend and one of my most trusted advisers,” Obama said.
Obama elevated the popular Goolsbee — one of the most public defenders and explainers of the administration’s economic recovery strategies — to chairman last Sept. 10, replacing Christina Romer as chair.
Goolsbee decided to depart to preserve his tenure at the U. of C.
The school has “been beyond understanding of my public service,” Goolsbee told the Chicago Sun-Times. Goolsbee, who advised Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, is expected to assist the 2012 Obama re-election drive — headquartered in Chicago — when he returns to his Hyde Park home. Lynn Sweet
