Obama Announces Economic Team and Treasury Extends 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 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 noon press conference today:
- 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)
