Obama's economic council head resigns

Austan Goolsbee, one of United States President Barack Obama's closest economic advisers, announced on Monday night that he would resign.

According to the Washington Post, Goolsbee, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, is leaving to preserve his tenured professorship at the University of Chicago, where he became close friends with Obama, who was a law professor there before running for the US Senate in 2004.

The university rarely allows professors to take more than a year or two of leave. Goolsbee has been on leave since 2007, first to advise Obama's campaign and then to serve on the Council of Economic Advisers.

Goolsbee took on his current role eight months ago when Obama's first CEA chair, Christina Romer, departed.

While Romer fought aggressively for the White House to continue to focus on using government money to stimulate the economy, Goolsbee has taken a more moderate tone, believing that the private sector must drive the economy's growth now that the recession has passed.

Goolsbee, who was a professor at the University of Chicago for 14 years, will leave the White House this summer so he can return to the university before the next academic year.