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In an earlier post I attempted to correct Dr. Austan Goolsbee’s incorrect and inflammatory statements about President Bush.  I would like here to add my views to one additional question on the auto industry discussion on this morning’s edition of Fox News Sunday. Host Chris Wallace moderated a discussion this morning with: Dr. Austan Goolsbee, [...]

This morning on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace moderated a discussion about the auto industry.  One of his guests was Dr. Austan Goolsbee, who is a Member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist on the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. I want to focus on some incorrect and inflammatory statements [...]

Many of you are new to this blog since I wrote extensively about autos six weeks ago.  As background, I coordinated the auto loan process for President Bush last fall as the Director of the White House National Economic Council (the position now held by Dr. Lawrence Summers).  I wrote a series of posts on [...]

Yesterday on his blog the President’s Budget Director, Peter Orszag, asks himself and then answers the question, “How much does the federal government owe?” This sounds like a technical question of concern only to “those of us wearing the green eyeshades,” but the Director’s suggested answer has dangerous ramifications, and could mislead or at least confuse [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the March employment report at 8:30 am.  Here is the least you need to know: Net payroll employment declined in March by 663,000 jobs. That’s a terrible number, and in line with expectations. The unemployment rate increased from 8.1% to 8.5%. Much of the press coverage talks about “5.1 [...]

The President has arrived in London for the G-20 economic summit.  I have different policy views than the President on some of these issues, but I will not criticize him while he is overseas.  I will attempt to gently highlight a couple of substantive issues that concern me, but at the same time I want [...]

President Obama spoke about loans to the auto industry at 11 AM this morning in the Grand Foyer of the White House. In the first three parts of this series, we (1) covered some background, (2) analyzed the President’s options, and (3) learned about the loans President Bush authorized in December, which laid the groundwork [...]

The White House press office announced this evening that the President will speak about the auto industry tomorrow (Monday), at 11 AM, in the Grand Foyer of the White House. The press is reporting that General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner has agreed to step down at the request of the Administration. If you have read [...]

In part one of this series, I explained why I think the Obama Administration will soon run out of TARP money and need to ask Congress for more. Several weeks ago the Obama team began to lay the groundwork for such a request.  Here are four signs. 1.  In his February 24th Address to the [...]

About Keith Hennessey About this blog About the National Economic Council About my work in the White House Photo credits Technical credits About Keith Hennessey I served as the senior White House economic advisor to President George W. Bush.  My job was to coordinate economic policy for the President, including macroeconomic issues, financial markets and [...]