Issues '08: The Economy

It’s how do we get out of this mess, and then, what will the new rules of the road be? That’s our issue.

Barack Obama and John McCain come at America’s suddenly-raging economic challenge with different instincts, different records, different plans, and different parties behind them. What would they do as president?

This hour, On Point: We’re talking with the top economic advisors to candidates McCain and Obama on how they would put the United States back on the path to prosperity.

You can join the conversation. What’s your question, your advice, for the men who have the ear of Obama and McCain on the economy? Who do you trust to change the course that brought us to crisis? Do you want to change?Guests:

Greg Ip, U.S. economics editor for The Economist. He led the magazine’s recent survey of 142 economists for their views of the two candidates' economic policies.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, senior policy adviser to John McCain. He served as chief economist on George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers in 2001-2002 and as director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2003-2005. Most recently, he was a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Austan Goolsbee, senior economic adviser to Barack Obama. He is an economist at The University of Chicago and the Progressive Policy Institute, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and former editor of the Journal of Law and Economics.

UPDATE:

Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic points to the exchange during this show between Holtz-Eakin and Goolsbee over the Treasury Secretary Paulson's proposal to recapitalize banks, which Holtz-Eakin called "disturbing" and "not the way things should be done in the United States." We've posted a transcript of the exchange here.