President-elect Obama Takes On the Economy

President-elect Obama has made the global economy a top priority in his upcoming administration and has announced selections for an economic "dream team".  Leading the team is New York Federal Reserve Chairman Timothy Geither, selected for nomination as the Secretary of the Treasury.

 

Former Harvard University president Lawrence Summers has been nominated as the Director of the National Economic Council, while Christina Romer has been nominated to chair the President's Council of Economic Advisors.  Romer is an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

 

Melody Barnes, a former policy director at the Center for American Progress, has been nominated as Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.  President-elect Obama also announced the creation of the President's Economic Advisory Board, to be chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.  The board's top staff official is Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist who is also a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.