Council of Economic Advisers
The Council of Economic Advisers was established by the Employment Act of 1946 to provide the President with objective economic analysis and advice on the development and implementation of a wide range of domestic and international economic policy issues.
The Council consists of one Chairman and two members. Christina Romer, Austan Goolsbee, and Cecilia Rouse are President Barack Obama's nominees to the Council.
The Council has five main duties and functions:
- To gather timely and authoritative information concerning economic developments and economic trends, both current and prospective; to analyze and interpret such information for the purpose of determining whether such developments and trends are interfering, or are likely to interfere, with the achievement of such policy; and to compile and submit to the President studies relating to such developments and trends
- To develop and recommend to the President national economic policies to foster and promote free competitive enterprise, to avoid economic fluctuations or to diminish the effects thereof, and to maintain employment
- To make and furnish such studies, reports thereon, and recommendations with respect to matters of Federal economic policy and legislation as the President may request
- To appraise the various programs and activities of the Federal Government for the purpose of determining the extent to which such programs and activities are contributing, and the extent to which they are not contributing, to the achievement of such policy, and to make recommendations to the President with respect thereto
- To assist and advise the President in the preparation of the Economic Report
Each month, the Council of Economic Advisers prepares a report for the Joint Economic Committee that includes economic information on prices, wages, production, business activity, purchasing power, credit, money and Federal finance. To view the report, otherwise known as the Council’s monthly Economic Indicators publication,
click here.
