Obama to name Goolsbee to head council

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has chosen one of his longtime economic advisers, Austan Goolsbee, to be the chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, a White House official said.

Obama was expected to announce the appointment at the beginning of his news conference on Friday. The official spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because the formal announcement had not been made.

Goolsbee, a University of Chicago professor of economics, is one of three economists on the council. He already has been confirmed to the council by the Senate.

He replaces Christina Romer, who left the administration last week to return to her teaching position at the University of California, Berkeley.

ABC reported late Thursday that Goolsbee would be named to the post, a key position as Obama focuses on the economy ahead of November elections. Voters may be in the mood to blame the president's Democratic Party over the sour economy and unemployment.

Goolsbee, 41, was Obama's senior economic policy adviser during the 2008 presidential campaign. A graduate of Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is considered to be a centrist economist.

He gained unwanted visibility during the campaign after a Canadian consulate memo asserted that Goolsbee privately told Canadian officials that Obama's public statements on trade were "political positioning." Goolsbee disputed the claim.