Policy Punchline

Austan Goolsbee is former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers for President Obama and led the Economic Recovery Advisory Board after the 2008 financial crisis. In this interview, he talks about how he first got involved advising Obama’s Senate campaign in 2004 as a fellow UChicago professor, the critical decision-making moments to save the economy from recession, his reasons of endorsing Pete Buttigieg for President, the efficacy of UBI in an AI economy, and his potential prospects as a stand-up comedian… Prof. Goolsbee is currently the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. His research has earned him recognition as a Fulbright Scholar and an Alfred P. Sloan fellow. In prior years he was named one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum, and one of the six "Gurus of the Future" by the Financial Times. His ability to explain economics clearly has made Goolsbee popular in the media. Jon Stewart describes him as "Eli