Austan GoolsbeeMany readers of this blog are well familiar with Austan Goolsbee, a colleague of Levitt’s at the University of Chicago who is currently serving in Washington on the Council of Economic Advisers and as chief economist for the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. He is (in no particular order): brainy, talkative, excitable, and fully engaged in just about any modern economic issue worth considering, including the budget, the tax code, the auto industry, the bailouts, and on and on.
He nevertheless makes time for Stephen Colbert — and, fortunately, for this blog. He has agreed to answer your questions, so ask away in the comments section. As always, we will post his replies in short order.
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Why can’t democrats and republicans agree to at least have the federal budget in balance? It would seem that it benefits neither party to have huge deficits to fight whenever tougher economic times arrives.
If both parties sign a deal to keep the budget in balance there can be all the usual political bickering about how to do it. However as long as all have agreed that it must be done solutions might be easier to find?
Many have discussed the dramatic and historically unprecedented expansion in the money supply due to the stimulus package. Is the White House concerned about long-term inflation? What are they planning to do to control it?
Prof. Goolsbee-
Is there any chance you’ll teach a class at Chicago Booth next year? I was really looking forward to your class on Economics & Policy in the Telecom, Media & Technology Industries…
Can/will the White House do anything to get us out from under the Too Big To Fail bank oligarchy?
Do you think raising taxes on the wealthiest taxpayers can stifle economic growth? Why or why not?
A question for Austan Goolsbee:
According to the Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124199948894005017.html,
the US government decided to give GM’s secured creditors 29 cents on the dollar when secured creditors are supposed to get paid off first. If you’re trying to get credit markets up and running isn’t this sort of behaviour counterproductive? After all if secured creditors can expect that the government might decide on a whim to take money to which they are entitled that will discourage lending.
Why would the White House continue to push CAFE standards in the name of conservation, when taxing fuel is widely agreed to be the most effective and immediate solution to encourage lower fuel consumption? If we really want to get past politics, don’t we need technologically neutral solutions?
Do you feel behavioral economics is a new paradigm in economics or a tweak on standard models? Following Ayres’ request for a “richer list of specific applications” in this blog in Jan ’09, are there any applications making their way into policy?