Most of the nation knows there will be a debate in St. Louis tonight. Fewer people know there was another debate between the McCain and Obama camps in town today over economic policy.

Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago academic, is Barack Obama’s top economic adviser. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, holds the same position in Sen. John McCain’s campaign. They faced off at the Missouri Historical Society in Forest Park.

Here’s a quick summary of the points they made on key issues:

• Goolsbee on the financial crisis: “This is not a purely financial system problem. The roots of this problem are in the squeeze felt by ordinary Americans. … We must keep the focus on the real economy and real jobs while dealing with this financial crisis.”
• Holtz-Eakin on the Wall Street bailout bill: “They asked for a blank check, and properly it was rejected.” The version passed by the Senate last night contains appropriate controls, he adds. He says McCain would create a “9/11 style commission” to recommend financial regulatory reforms.
• Holtz-Eakin on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: “John McCain’s commitment is that those institutions will be shrunk in size so they will no longer threaten our economy. Having been shrunk, they will be sold off to the private sector or closed.”
• Goolsbee on Fannie and Freddie: “That is not the core of the problem, that is a symptom.”
• Goolsbee on corporate taxes: Although the statutory rate is the highest in the developed world, he says total tax collections rank near the bottom because of loopholes. He accuses McCain of favoring tax cuts only for the rich and for big corporations, and says, “That is not a job creator, that is a job killer.”
• Holtz-Eakin on corporate taxes: “I would guess that those who have seen their jobs go to India, China or Ireland do not feel rich, and would not oppose a tax cut that’s going to keep them in their jobs.”
• Goolsbee on health care: He says McCain’s plan “doesn’t address the fundamental problem of the operation of the health care market. Insurance companies are getting better and better at competing by finding out who’s sick and not covering them, rather than giving them more coverage for less money.”
• Holtz-Eakin on health care: He says McCain’s $5,000 individual health-care credit would force insurers to compete. “They can’t just drop people. They have to go out and seek the $5,000 that’s on the table.”
• Goolsbee on trade: Obama “has suppported some trade agreements. He has opposed other trade agreements. There are millions of people who have been left out in the bounty that is international trade. We are doing a disservice to the opening of trade because we are creating a backlash where people suspect the motives of their government and they suspect the motives of those who want open trade.”
• Holtz-Eakin on trade: He says other nations are “passing us by” by enacting free trade agreements while Congress stalls a deal betwen the U.S. and Colombia. And he says McCain would get talks in the World Trade Organization’s Doha round untracked by cutting U.S. agricultural subsidies.

There was more — including a discussion of cap-and-trade programs to combat global warming. Both candidates favor that, with minor differences, but this is already a long post. The campaign websites have full details on McCain’s and Obama’s economic programs.