Austan Goolsbee: If you ever watch a NASCAR race, they pull the car in...

I believe - I'm not a political expert, but I believe there is a broad consensus, a middle ground if you will, that Democrats and Republicans, business people and workers can agree on, to get this - the economy growing faster, getting people back to work.

Austan Goolsbee

political believe people

Cutting taxes for very high income people an average of more than $100,000 a year for people that make more than a million dollars a year is not an effective way to get the economy going.

Austan Goolsbee

cutting average years

For policy makers interested in using tax policy to stimulate investments or especially to smooth business cycle fluctuations, the results are not promising.

Austan Goolsbee

smooth investment makers

Absent geopolitical crises, the role of government policy isn't as big as people think in the short run. In the immediate term, the potential to ignite an escalating trade war without really intending to ought to be high on our list of US dangers as should dangers of popping credit bubbles either internationally or here at home.

Austan Goolsbee

home running war

If a lobbyist sets up shop, or a lawyer, in which they're receiving income through what is something like a tax loophole so that it's not counting as corporate income, that is what this is counting as a small business.

Austan Goolsbee

lobbyists income receiving

I am a data hound and so I usually end up working on whatever things I can find good data on. The rise of Internet commerce completely altered the amount of information you could gather on company behavior so I naturally drifted toward it.

Austan Goolsbee

internet data information

The share of income that small business people are paying in taxes is the lowest it has been in 65 years - since Obama has cut taxes 18 or 22 times for small business.

Austan Goolsbee

cutting people years

I think actually the American people are pretty realistic. In polls they ask what do you think of the president's policies. Is he on the right track? They say yes. They ask them how long will it take for the economy to recover. And people are saying two years.

Austan Goolsbee

two years thinking

At the time of the formation of the euro, I would say most American economists said that's not a good idea; that's not a currency area that makes sense. And the answer from Europe was, 'How is Missouri and Mississippi a currency area?' But the flaw in that was not recognizing the importance of mobility.

Austan Goolsbee

answer say good time

There were 14,000 people at the rally for the president in Ohio. There were another 8,000 people in Virginia. If all 22,000 of those people opened their wallets and gave $1,000 each, that would be less than one donation from a billionaire to the super PACs. And that's why he's in for the fight of his life.

Austan Goolsbee

fight donation life people

In this country, we have partnerships, we have S corps, we have LLCs, we have a series of entities that do not pay corporate income tax.

Austan Goolsbee

partnerships tax pay country

When Texans suffered from the collapse of the oil market in the 1980s, they could rely on the fiscal union to help them. When Texas boomed with rising oil prices in the 2000s, it contributed to the union to help harder hit regions.

Austan Goolsbee

market help oil texas

We enter the government essentially in a hotel that is on fire. We're throwing people from the windows into the pool to save their lives and this is the evaluation of the Olympic diving committee: Well, the splash was too big.

Austan Goolsbee

hotel government fire people

If you had asked people in 1929, 'Here is what is about to happen. How much would you pay to avoid the Great Depression from occurring?' The answer is they would have paid a lot. They would have borrowed money if it could be used to prevent the Great Depression.

Austan Goolsbee

you money depression people

This recession is the deepest in our lifetimes, the deepest since 1929. If you take the people thrown out of work in the 1982 recession, the 1991 recession, the 2001 recession, not only is this bigger, this is bigger than all of those combined.

Austan Goolsbee

deepest you work people

So more than 8 million people lost their jobs. It's going to take a significant push on our part and time before that comes down. I don't anticipate it coming down rapidly.

Austan Goolsbee

push down time people

I don't believe, the president doesn't believe, that the high income tax cuts work, period. I don't think the evidence supports that.

Austan Goolsbee

high think work believe

It's clear that the medium and long-run fiscal challenges facing the country have to do with the rise of entitlement spending, they have to do with the longer run imbalances that we've created in the structure of the system.

Austan Goolsbee

rise run challenges country

The president is 100 percent for extending the tax cuts for 98.7 percent of small businesses.

Austan Goolsbee

tax small percent president

The only question where there is disagreement is should the highest income rates above a quarter million dollars a year go back to where they were under Bill Clinton. That is the dispute about the taxes.

Austan Goolsbee

question year back go

If you ever watch a NASCAR race, they pull the car in, and five people jump over the wall and they get them back out on the road in 13 seconds, and that's kind of the job of a good policy adviser in the campaign. You're not Dale Jr.. Dale Jr. is Dale Jr.. Your job is to get some tires on there.