Obama names his economic team
Geithner nominated as Treasury chief, Summers picked as director of National Economic Council.
By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: November 24, 2008: 12:06 PM ET
money.cnn.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President-elect Barack Obama named key members of his administration's economic team Monday, including New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner as his Treasury Secretary nominee and former Harvard President Lawrence Summers as the director of the National Economic Council.
Obama's announcement was scheduled just hours after the federal government announced a massive rescue package for Citigroup - which President Bush said he'd spoken with Obama about before it was announced.
Mission No. 1 over the next few weeks for Obama's economic team will be hammering out the details of what the president-elect described this weekend as a two-year economic recovery plan intended to create 2.5 million jobs.
Estimates for how much might be spent on a multi-year stimulus package range as high as $500 billion to $700 billion.
At the center of the plan are investments in the nation's roads, bridges, schools and alternative-energy infrastructure.
Obama's top economic team member - his Treasury Secretary - will also be charged with overseeing the dispersal of funds from the controversial $700 billion financial rescue package that Congress passed in October.
Word last week that Obama was likely to nominate Geithner, 47, as his Treasury Secretary sent stocks soaring on Friday.
Geithner, highly respected both on Wall Street and in the Capitol's corridors, has already been playing a central role in the Treasury's and Federal Reserve's efforts to stabilize the financial system. His nomination is expected to provide the kind of continuity in the Treasury's financial rescue efforts that will be welcome in the markets and among lawmakers.
Bush said Monday morning that Paulson is working closely with the Obama transition team.
As the head of Obama's National Economic Council, Summers will coordinate economic policy-making and economic policy advice for the president.
Summers, who turns 54 this month, is considered one of the country's most pre-eminent - and controversial - economists, and he served as Treasury Secretary for two years during the Clinton administration.
Obama also announced that economist Christina Romer will be director his Council of Economic Advisors, which provides economic analysis and advice to the president.
Romer is a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-director of the monetary economics programs at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). NBER is the group that officially determines when U.S. recessions begin and end.
Big stimulus to be signed quickly
Obama's plans to boost the economy aren't likely to be limited to investing in infrastructure and energy initiatives.
Several other measures are expected as well. Among some of the possibilities discussed: direct federal aid to states and cities, tax cuts for low- and middle-income Americans, increased food stamp payments, and a tax credit for businesses that create new jobs in the United States.
Whatever Obama and his economic team ultimately decide to include in the economic recovery package, it's expected that Congress will have the final legislation ready for the president-elect's signature the day he's inaugurated.
First Published: November 24, 2008: 5:55 AM ET |
