Obama Economic Team

President Barack Obama's economic team is made up of several financial veterans, including Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner and former Clinton Treasury Secretary and economist Lawrence Summers. Obama announced his economic team on November 24, 2008. He named Geithner to the treasury secretary post and Sumners as head of the White House Economic Council.CNN: Obama names his economic team (November 24, 2008)

Obama was expected to meet with his economic team to discuss an ongoing financial crisis on January 21, 2009—his first full day in office. Obama's team was pushing the president's economic stimulus package and ways to use the second half of a financial industry bailout to to address the housing foreclosure crisis.Huffington Post: Obama's Governing Begins: First Day On The Job (January 21, 2009) International Herald Tribune: No easy answers as Obama team faces... (January 21, 2009)

"Having served in senior roles at Treasury, the IMF and the New York Fed, Tim Geithner offers not just extensive experience shaping economic policy and managing financial markets—but an unparalleled understanding of our current economic crisis, in all of its depth, complexity and urgency. Tim will waste no time getting up to speed. He will start his first day on the job with a unique insight into the failures of today’s markets—and a clear vision of the steps we must take to revive them."—Barack ObamaWashington Wire: Text of President-Elect Obama’s Remarks on Economic Team (November 24, 2008)

"As undersecretary, deputy secretary, and then secretary of the Treasury, Larry [Summers] helped guide us through several major international financial crises—and was a central architect of the policies that led to the longest economic expansion in American history, with record surpluses, rising family incomes and more than 20 million new jobs. He also championed a range of measures – from tax credits to enhanced lending programs to consumer financial protections—that greatly benefitted middle income families."—Barack ObamaWashington Wire: Text of President-Elect Obama’s Remarks on Economic Team (November 24, 2008)

"Christina [Romer] is both a leading macroeconomist and a leading economic historian, perhaps best known for her work on America’s recovery from the Great Depression and the robust economic expansion that followed. Since 2003, she has been co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research Monetary Economics program. She is also a member of the Bureau’s Business Cycle Dating Committee—the body charged with officially determining when a recession has started and ended—experience which will serve her well as she advises me on our current economic challenges."—Barack ObamaWashington Wire: Text of President-Elect Obama’s Remarks on Economic Team (November 24, 2008)

"As Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, Melody [Barnes] directed a network of policy experts dedicated to finding solutions for struggling middle class families. She also served as Chief Counsel to the great Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee, working on issues ranging from crime to immigration to bankruptcy, and fighting tirelessly to protect civil rights, women’s rights and religious freedom."—Barack ObamaWashington Wire: Text of President-Elect Obama’s Remarks on Economic Team (November 24, 2008)