The Chicago Federal Reserve will appoint economist Austan Goolsbee as its new president early next year as it weighs critical policy moves. Goolsbee will take the seat officially on Jan. 9, 2023, and he will complete the term begun by Charles Evans that expires on Feb. 28, 2026. Goolsbee is currently a professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and previously served as chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors from 2010 to 2011. “Austan is an exceptional choice to be the next president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He is a highly accomplished economist with extensive policy experience and a strong commitment to public service,” Helene Gayle, chair of the Chicago Fed’s board of directors, said in a statement.
Goolsbee comes to the Chicago Fed at a sensitive time for the central bank. Amid the highest inflation levels in more than 40 years, the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate half a dozen times this year and will continue to do so through at least early 2023. Some economists worry the Fed is over-tightening and could cause a recession. In recent remarks to CNBC, Goolsbee indicated that the slowdown in some inflation data points likely wouldn’t be enough to get the Fed to back off much from its policy tightening. “If you’re raising 75 basis points a meeting, we’re going to have to figure out the timing of the pivot,” he said following October’s consumer price index report showing that inflation rose less than expected monthly. “Unless and until you get that core monthly inflation down in a comfortable range, I think the voices that are saying ‘slow down, cool off’ are still going to be a little muted.”