On Monday, in Chicago, President-elect Barack Obama unveiled his economic team, and further, urged the next Congress to quickly pass a massive stimulus plan
Obama unveiled the following members of his team:
- Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary. Geithner is currently head of the New York Federal Reserve.
- Lawrence Summers, head of the National Economic Council. Summers is a former Clinton Treasury secretary.
- Christina Romer, director of the Council of Economic Advisers. Romer is a UC Berkeley professor of economics.
- Melody Barnes, director of the Domestic Policy Council. Co-director of the Agency Review Working Group for the Obama transition team, and the senior domestic policy adviser to Obama during the campaign.
- Heather Higginbottom, deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council. She was Obama's policy director during the campaign and earlier served as Sen. John Kerry's legislative director.
Obama said:
"I've sought leaders who could offer both sound judgment and fresh thinking, both a depth of experience and a wealth of bold new ideas — and most of all, who share my fundamental belief that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers. That in this country, we rise and fall as one nation, as one people."
Obama also called on the new Congress to act quickly to pass an economic stimulus to promote jobs, which some have said might dwarf the $700 billion already allocated by the Bush administration.
Some rather dire statements from his press conference:
"The economy is likely to get worse before it gets better."
"Most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year."
Dire indeed. Some have speculated that the 2 months between now and the inauguration may be two months too much.
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