robert zoellick and former chairman of the council of economic advisers, austan goolsbee, and michael boskin they discuss the global economy and the so-called fiscal cliff in which automatic tax hikes would take place unless congress acts. this is 45 minutes. >> the former chairman of the council of economic advisers under president obama, and michael boskin, who spoke last night briefly and is the chief economic adviser for george h.w. bush and is now a stanford economic professor. so we have a whole world to span. i want to start out with the united states. very few people in this room understand the president as well as us and, goolsby, a lot of legal are asking what is -- a lot of people are asking what is going to come of the fiscal cliff. i'd like to ask you to describe for us how do you see the budget negotiations playing out over the next six months? >> well, it feels to me like they almost had a deal last year. the principal bottle neck last year was not that the president was unwilling to offer cuts, it was that there was a group of republicans in the house who wouldn't go for the

. >> where is michael boskin at? you were part of this 1990 deal. i wonder if you could -- what is your perspective on this? >> i think you are right that the enforcement mechanism is important. spending was limited to a specific dollar amount and could not be exceeded. and on the had very tight enforcement procedures won't buy one for every agency. the other was there was a marginal balanced-budget rule. >> that's right. >> if you wanted to add a new entitlement, you had to pay for it. so it's kind of like at the margin, -- both of those worked pretty well until the late '90s and the balance was actually at a surplus with the internet bubble. >> partly because allen greenspan told us the danger of these huge surpluses. >> in any event, the discipline got lost. it was re-upped by clinton and the republican congress several years later. another key part and why george w. bush wanted to go along with it, he was able to wolof this. he was worried about very draconian cuts. >> incidentally, that will again be important. >> i think it is important and al

austin goolsbee and michael boskin. this is about 45 minutes. >> good morning, everybody. i have three distinguished economists and economic policy- makers talk about. we have a wide touring to spend -- terrain to span. immediately to my left, robert zelig. austin goolsbee, former chairman of the council of economic investors under president obama, and michael boskin, who spoke last night as chief economic advisor for george h. w. bush. we have a whole world to spend. i want to start out with the united states. very few people in this room understand the president as well as us. many are asking -- what is going to come? i would like to look through the fiscal cliff and ask you to describe for us how you see the budget negotiations playing out over the next six months. >> it feels to me like they always had a deal last year. the principal bottleneck was not that the president was on willing to offer cuts. it was that there was a group of republicans in the house who would not go for the revenue. i think that is still the bottle neck now. you probably saw the article this mo