Obama's Brain Trust

Austan Goolsbee, an economics professor at the University of Chicago, is a senior research fellow at the American Bar Association and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Goolsbee is a free trade advocate who has criticized the Bush administration for failing to enforce the rules of existing trade agreements and for not bringing enough cases before the World Trade Organization.

In an April 2007 policy report from the Progressive Policy Institute, Goolsbee said the Bush administration's tax cuts for the wealthy have failed as policy. Eliminating those tax cuts, along with federal spending reductions, "will more than pay for everything Senator Obama has proposed," Goolsbee told the New York Timesin April 2008.

Goolsbee has also said that foreign ownership of U.S. debt " raises the potential threat to America's geopolitical position." Like Obama, Goolsbee has expressed particular concern about U.S. debt with China.

Goolsbee made headlines in March 2008 over his meeting with the Canadian Consulate General in Chicago to discuss Obama's critical stance toward NAFTA. Initial reports said Goolsbee assured Canadian officials that Obama did not really intend to renegotiate NAFTA, as he has often claimed on the campaign trail. The Obama campaign denied these reports.

William M. Daleyserved as chairman of President Bill Clinton's NAFTA Task Force. A few years after the enactment of the trade agreement, Daley became Clinton's secretary of commerce.

Daley remains a believer in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), even though Obama has criticized it extensively and has pledged to renegotiate the deal if elected. Daley has said he has "a difference of opinion" with Obama on NAFTA. He also warned against making promises about NAFTA that would be difficult to keep. "Saying to the Mexicans, if he were to win the presidency, 'Now, I've got a political problem here. Can we work this out?' That won't work," Daley said to the Chicago Tribune.

As commerce secretary, Daley praised the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and its $60 million equity fund investment in Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan as demonstrating "the commitment of the United States to furthering the cause of peace in the region."