New Obama Economic Head: 'We're Not Broke

The president just tagged Austan Goolsbee as his next pick to lead the Council of Economic Advisers. But who is he?

A Yale and MIT grad, Goolsbee was a colleague of Obama's at the University of Chicago, and has been advising the president since 2004. But, like Obama, he doesn't subscribe to that university's historically conservative leanings, says the Wall street Journal:

Despite his pedigree from the historically conservative University of Chicago, Republicans aren’t likely to cheer his stance on taxes. During the 2008 presidential campaign he strongly backed the president’s plan to increase taxes on those earning more than $250,000 a year. Meanwhile, much of his academic research has attempted to counter arguments that tax cuts pay for themselves and that raising taxes on high-income individuals reduces long-term government revenue.

When he appeared on "The Daily Show" last August, he unabashedly supported the stimulus and offered a glimpse into the way he thinks about the economy. For example, according to him, "we the country are not broke," and "when you're looking in the face of the next Great Depression, that's not the time to tighten the belt":

He also likes amateur comedy: