Costs of everyday essentials like groceries and gas are steadily climbing while wages remain largely stagnant, which is particularly true in the Chicago area where the inflation rate is higher than anywhere else in the country — an unwanted first-place position.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President and CEO Austan Goolsbee said the U.S. is currently on what he calls a “golden path.” Inflation has cooled from historic highs without the country going into a recession, and the unemployment rate is at what economists generally consider a sweet spot. Now the key is staying there.

This weekend, visitors can learn all about the Federal Reserve and get a rare glimpse at an historic and heavily fortified building more than 100 years old.

As head of a regional Fed bank, Goolsbee will have a vote on the central bank’s interest rate decisions in 2023. Each year, four of the regional bank presidents rotate into voting positions on the Fed’s rate-setting committee.

House Democrats muscled past Republicans on portions of President Joe Biden’s pandemic plan, including a proposed $130 billion in additional relief to help the nation’s schools reopen and a gradual increase of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The U.S. House is expected to pass a $2 trillion stimulus and relief package — the largest bailout in American history. But will it be enough to save workers and businesses ravaged by the virus?

University of Chicago economics professor Austan D. Goolsbee, a former Cabinet member to former President Barack Obama, will serve as the newest member of the Chicago Board of Education.

A month after the federal government's sequestration cuts, economists still disagree on their impact. Will 750,000 jobs be lost or 300,000? University of Chicago professors Austan Goolsbee and Steven Kaplan join us.

We speak with former top White House economist Austan Goolsbee about Chicago's job performance.