Obama To Appoint Goolsbee As CEA Chair

President Barack Obama has selected one of his longtime economic advisers, Austan Goolsbee, to replace Christina Romer as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, according to a White House official.

Romer recently stepped down amid a withering economy with plans to return to California to be with her son as he starts high school this fall. She is expected to take a teaching position at the University of California at Berkely. 

Her replacement, Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago professor of economics, has been serving as staff director of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a new Obama administration advisory committee, since Obama took office. Goolsbee also served as Obama’s senior economic adviser during the 2008 presidential campaign but slid under the radar after he reportedly told Canadian officials Obama’s stance on trade was ‘political positioning’. He disputed the allegations and later resurfaced in a series of debates with Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

Additionally, because the 41-year-old Goolsbee was confirmed by the Senate as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, he does not need a second confirmation to ascend as chairman. 

President Obama is expected to make his appointment public this morning at a news conference from the White House.