Bush's top economic advisor stepping down

Gregory Mankiw, a top economic adviser to President Bush who stirred controversy with his comment that outsourcing U.S. jobs might benefit the economy, has resigned, the White House said Wednesday.

Government sources said Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke was a leading candidate to replace Mankiw as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan declined to comment on Mankiw’s replacement but said someone would be named soon.

Officials said Mankiw’s last day would be Friday and that he would return to teaching at Harvard University.

“My two years in Washington is now coming to a close. It is time for me to return to my family, my students and my books,” Mankiw said in his Feb. 9 resignation letter to Bush. A copy of the letter was released by the White House.

As one of his final acts in the job, Mankiw will release the council’s annual economic report Thursday.

“Obviously we’re moving to name a replacement and I expect that would be soon,” McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Hampshire, where Bush promoted his plans for Social Security.

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Mankiw’s tenure was marked by some election-year controversy.

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One was sparked by his jobs forecast, which Democrats derided as overly optimistic. Another erupted after he suggested that the outsourcing of jobs to workers overseas may benefit the economy — a comment that stirred criticism from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

Mankiw’s departure is one of several changes on the Bush economic team expected over the next several weeks.

John Taylor, the U.S. Treasury’s point person on international affairs, is also expected to step down soon and be replaced by senior Bush campaign adviser Tim Adams.

Mankiw has been a professor of economics at Harvard University since July 1987.