President to name new panel of economic advisors

Posted Feb 6th 2009 3:30PM by Lita Epstein
Filed under: Money and Finance Today, Politics, Financial Crisis

President Obama wants to get advice from outside the regular Washington circles, so he'll be announcing today a new team of outside economic advisers headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Dubbed the White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board, the group will include GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt, Caterpillar Chairman Jim Owens, Former SEC Chairman William Donaldson, TIAA-CREF President Roger Ferguson, Yale University Chief Investment Officer David Swenson, President of Oracle Corp. Charles Phillips, Harvard University Professor Martin Feldstein and University of California, Berkeley Professor Laura Tyson.

Labor will also be represented by Richard Trumpka of the AFL-CIO and Anna Burger of the Service Employees International Union. Others members include Mark Gallogly, founder and managing partner of Centerbridge Partners, Penny Pritzker, chairman of Pritzker Realty Group, John Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, and Monica Loranzo, publisher and CEO of La Opinion.

The board will meet for two years and be modeled after the foreign intelligence board created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In setting up this board the White House said, "The board will bring a diverse set of perspectives and voices from different parts of the country and different sectors of the economy to bear in the formulation and evaluation of economic policy."

In addition to looking for ways to jump-start economic growth, the board will look for long-term fixes to ensure future prosperity. When Obama announced Volcker's appointment to lead this group on November 26, he said this board will be a vehicle for new ideas about solving the economic crisis. He added, "The walls of the echo chamber can sometimes keep out fresh voices and new ways of thinking, and those who serve in Washington don't always have a ground-level sense of which programs and policies are working."

While it's great to see that President Obama wants to look outside Washington for opinions on how to fix this economic mess, I can only wonder whether he has surrounded himself with so many economic advisers that his moves could get bogged down with talk and little action. Hopefully this board will be one that will be able to get past the egos of those on the board and look toward a quick and effective action plan.

Lita Epstein has authored more than 25 books including "Surviving a Layoff: A Week-by-Week Guide to Getting Your Life Back Together."

Tags: economic crisis, economic recovery, EconomicCrisis, EconomicRecovery, obama, volcker

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-06-2009 @ 4:23PM

David W. Huston said...

To the new board I donate the "Huston Plan", which you may use without attribution. Instead of worrying about toxic assets, the Board should focus on setting up a "Good" bank (call it the Bank of the United States and sunset it 10 years hence), whose mission is to provide the credit facilities to all prospective borrowers that the existing banks are unable or unwilling to provide. Set reasonable credit criteria for borrowers, and have it overseen and funded by the FED. Let existing obloigations among lenders and counterparties (including particularly the credit default swaps) work themselves out in the free market. No more bailouts for banks and insurance companies and excessive debt for taxpayers.

2-06-2009 @ 6:30PM

william lindblad said...

Mr Huston has a reasonable idea. Now, if this could be accomplished without Congress?

As far as an impartial panel - he should have Lee Iaccoa. Lee know how to say "you're fired".
Volcker is a good choice, but as an advisor he and the others are not going to have much clout. Obama is already aware that the honeymoon is going to be short.