Obama announces economic team and Treasury extends Money Market Guarantee ProgramMortgagePress.comBarack Obama, Blank Rome LLP, U.S. Treasury, Money Market Guarantee Program
What will it take to jolt the U.S. economy back into shape?
Congressional leaders have floated ideas for an economic stimulus
package ranging from $500 to $700 billion. President-Elect Barack
Obama is not espousing numbers yet but has assembled his economic
team and charged it with developing recommendations for restoring
economic growth and creating 2.5 million jobs. While serious rumors
about his economic advisors started circulating last week, Obama
officially presented the group at a press conference held Monday,
Nov. 24:
• Treasury Secretary: Timothy F. Geithner, President and
CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and former long-time
Treasury official
• Director of the National Economic Council: Lawrence H.
Summers, former Clinton Administration Treasury Secretary and
Harvard economist
• Director of the Council of Economic Advisors: Christina
D. Romer, University of California at Berkeley economics
professor
• Director of the Domestic Policy Council: Melody C.
Barnes, former counsel to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and policy
director of the Center for American Progress
• Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council: Heather
A. Higginbottom, former legislative director and presidential
campaign advisor to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)
Obama broadly laid out his economic plan, noting there is
consensus between conservative and liberal economists that the
nation needs a big economic stimulus. Recognizing that Wall Street
problems have Main Street consequences, Obama indicated his
recovery plan will address both. His plan will:
• Stabilize the financial system and get credit
flowing;
• Address the foreclosure crisis;
• =Help the "struggling" auto industry;
• Create and save 2.5 million jobs;
• Rebuild infrastructure, including roads, bridges and
schools; and
• Create the clean energy infrastructure of the 21st
century.
Emphasizing continuity, Obama remarked, "These extraordinary
stresses on our financial system require extraordinary policy
responses. And my administration will honor the public commitments
made by the current administration to address this crisis." One
point of continuity Obama declined to address at this time is the
issue of the Bush tax cuts, most of which are due to expire in
2010. There has been speculation that Obama would announce a policy
of no tax increases, for anyone, until 2010 or perhaps even 2011.
At todays press conference, Obama refused to go beyond his campaign
pledge to provide a net tax cut to 95 percent of workers. He is
counting on his new economic team to recommend how.
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