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.
and 
. You can also watch it on 
I have to second the first two posts. What scares me the most, though, is inflation. Why should I not be worried about inflation making my hard earned savings worthless?
Are politically viable solutions always given more consideration in Washington than economically effective ones?
From a Behavioral Economic point of view…
Thinking (very) long term, to overcome the debt-buying culture that many Americans have grown up in -
What cultural change initiatives might we create to give Americans more confidence in their individual futures, so that we don’t feel the need to resort to credit, to have the nice things we want?
It seems, from personal observations, that we don’t suffer from a “get it now” mindset as much as a, “we may never get it the traditional way,” mindset, so we maybe say, “screw it, what alternative method can I use?”
Hence, credit card usage.
But if we were more confident that our abilities (speaking very generally here, of course) could lead to richer possibilities, we might likely make better financial decisions in the short term.
Even at the government level, maybe we have gotten away from our roots as the Innovation Nation, where we can ideate our way to prosperity – individually and collectively.
Just exploring our psychology – doubtful there’s one, clear answer. I just don’t sense the “confidence” in our general public that I envision some previous generations having.
But I could be quite mistaken.
Thank you mightily, for your time.
Are we seeing the end of investment banks and hedge funds as we knew them? If yes, why? And if not, are there any differences among the industries before & after?
How is your investment portfolio allocated?
Toyota or Chevy–which would you buy?
Which is misspelled more, your first or last name?
You’ve previously argued that, due in part to the inelastic nature of the labor supply in R&D fields, government subsidies to the R&D mainly go to salary increases for scientists and engineers thereby reducing the effectiveness of R&D funding and also crowding out private investment in R&D (if I recall correctly).
The President seems to disagree – or at least favors increasing the amount of government funding of R&D to spur inventive activity.
Can you distinguish the current market/economic environment from the one in which your original analysis took place to reconcile the President’s policy leaning with your own analysis – or do you disagree on this point of the President’s policy?
Many thanks.
What kind of progression in marginal tax rates do you think is ideal? There was a big hubub over the UK getting to 50% on their top rate, could we be heading there too and would it be helpful or harmful?
What was the Colbert interview like? How much preparation/collaboration (if any) was there beforehand?