US economy: Austan Goolsbee dishes on Daily Show

Austan Goolsbee isn't your usual economist nerd.

He's funny. 

He speaks in clear, easy-to-follow sentences.

And he has an unforgettable name. 

All of those traits were on full display last night when Goolsbee, also known as the chairman of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, appeared with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show for a wide-ranging interview.

Goolsbee is leaving his post tomorrow.

He'll be returning to the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, where he was formerly employed (and a popular professor, to boot). 

Clearly, President Obama's favorite economist is happy about returning to the private sector. Jon Stewart called him "giddy" about the news. "It's like you've taken ecstasy," Stewart joked.

Here are some quick highlights:

"Once you get to Washington, there's only so long you can go," Goolsbee said. "There are a number of people there whose tray tables are not in the full, upright and locked position and eventually, you've just got to get on with it."

Goolsbee also called a certain side of Washington — the fist-pounding and the yelling — "deeply misguided," particularly as the White House economic team in June, he says, was focused on U.S. manufacturing and new politices to help boost jobs.

All of that, Goolsbee said, was drowned out by the debt ceiling debacle.