Chief economic adviser quits

For the second time in less than a year, Barack Obama is hunting for a new chief economic adviser, after the man he appointed to the post last September said he wanted to quit.

Professor Austan Goolsbee's decision comes as a poll yesterday rated the President's handling of the economy at a record low, and suggested that he would run neck and neck with the Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney, a private equity millionaire, in a presidential match-up next year.

Goolsbee, 41, has been at Obama's side since the 2004 Senate campaign that launched him to national fame, and is the youngest member of the President's Cabinet.

He leaves his post as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers to return to academia.

Yesterday the President said of Goolsbee: "He has helped steer our country out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and although there is much work ahead, his [counsel has] helped lead us toward an economy that is growing and creating millions of jobs."

- Independent