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Obama Taps Geithner to Head Treasury, Prepares Economic Team for Roll-Out Next Week

November 21, 2008 4:25 PM

From Jake Tapper and George Stephanopoulos:

After a very fluid process in which the identity of President-elect Obama's leading candidate for the job seemed to fluctuate like the market, on Friday New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner emerged poised to become the next Secretary of the Treasury.

Mr. Obama intends to announce his nomination early next week.

As one of the government's point people dealing with Wall Street, Geithner has earned much respect from politicians and CEOs alike. He has been working closely with the current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.  As evidence of Geithner's popularity on Wall Street, when the news leaked to two prominent business media -- CNBC and the Wall Street Journal -- the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared almost 500 points.

Geithner, a registered independent, has long been respected in Obamaland, referred to as "Obama-esque" for his outside-the-box thinking, relative youth, his overseas upbringing (elementary school in New Delhi, high school in Bangkok) and his love of a good game of pickup basketball.

The only other serious candidate for the Treasury slot has been the man who served that role at the end of the Clinton administration, Larry Summers. The formidable Summers is a man of great intellect but also controversy -- he was forced out as president of Harvard for any number of perceived slights, including suggesting that females are innately inferior in engineering and math.

Obama has been encouraging Summers to serve in his administration in some other role, perhaps as chair of the National Economic Council. Some Democrats suggest that Obama plans to name Summers chairman of the Federal Reserve when Bernanke's term expires at the beginning of 2010.

If for some reason Summers does not go to NEC, the leading candidate is Jack Lew, currently the Chief Operating Officer of Citigroup's Alternative Investments unit. Lew served as director of the Office of Management and Budget for President Bill Clinton. He and Dan Tarullo, a former Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs under Clinton -- who was earlier this week named leader of the Obama Transition Team's Economic Policy Working Group -- may both end up working at NEC. Peter Orszag, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, will become Obama's OMB director. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is a strong contender to be Obama's Secretary of Commerce.

Some high profile women are being considered for key economic slots.

Laura D'Andrea Tyson, the former chair of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, and could also play a key role in the Obama administration. The question right now -- what job to give her? Would deputy Treasury Secretary be enough to lure her east from the San Francisco area, where she's a professor at the Haas School of Business of the University of California, Berkeley.

Interestingly, though it's unclear what the Obama Team will decide, there is a lot of support among Democrats on Capitol Hill for Sheila Bair, the Republican chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., to stay on board.

In addition to wanting the best team he can put together, the Transition Team's goal is to assemble a group that can work well together, with as few confirmation issues as possible.

-- Jake Tapper and George Stephanopoulos

November 21, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (32)

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clancy49---you throw around the word "slavery" a little too casually. being a southerner you should know that slavery has a very real meaning to African-Americans. don't ever compare your situation to slavery. you're still angry the economic genius Sarah Palin is not hear to save the economy. sorry, the american people chose a more qualified individual. you can do someting a slave could never do---move freely. so head north if you think it's so good.

Posted by: Paul Wall | Nov 21, 2008 6:23:28 PM

Well, this is a reply to one of the comments that was added earlier by (pohcd). Yes by one person things could be different. Now, as we all know that Wall Street, stocks and economy are built on how confident people are with the market. There could be nothing wrong, but simply because of fear or confidence, the market could flip up side down within seconds. So let’s not underestimate the power of a person or idea that financial people could plant in our minds. Illusions and this is how most things works. For example, I can't believe that people were welling to buy houses when the house prices were sky racketing for the 4 years all of sudden. Now you can see that most of those buyers (within that period) couldn't afford those houses that they bought. I personally knew that the price aren't going to stay that high (just by watching the politics, economy and everything nation wide and around the globe); I didn’t know how long is it going to take until the house prices are going to start getting down, but the prices went down exactly as i expected, if not worse. So because people were afraid that the houses prices were going to get higher and higher, they thought about buying while they had no guarantees on affording the payments. At the end fear and confidence are what drive the market to move up or down (pohcd) trust me, and yes time will tell.

Posted by: dave | Nov 21, 2008 6:19:43 PM

55Mariposa

suppose 'change' actually means competent choices of staff that actually have a track record of accomplishing what they were hired to do..

suppose 'change' actually means having an intelligent President who is well versed on the issues..and is not afraid to ask questions.

suppose 'change' actually means listening, reading and understanding complex issues and not waiting for god to tell you what to do..

as opposed of course to the infinite number of imbeciles and cronys that have constantly made the headlines over the last 8 years by Bush, installed for their party 'loyalty'.

Posted by: Blue | Nov 21, 2008 6:14:45 PM

Any man who worked on the bailout with Bernanke and Poulson has my vote of confidence.

Posted by: Frederik | Nov 21, 2008 6:12:12 PM

Well, I guess I can say that President Elect Obama is truly another Abraham Lincoln. You see, Lincoln wasn't about slavery either. Lincoln was all about the industrial north keeping control of the power and southern resources. In this case, it is the northern power corruption keeping control of the economy and power over all people. You see, we Americans are all ECONOMIC SLAVES. J.P. Morgan is on the economic advisory committee and now this guy Geithner is Secretary of the Treasury and he is the former President of the Federal Reserve Bank. It is these two incidious corrupt organizations that keep financial slavery over us all. Yes Obama, you are another Lincoln.

Posted by: clancy49 | Nov 21, 2008 6:04:24 PM

Too bad Obama didn't name him about two weeks ago. Might have saved the market some stress!! Good choice - obviously by the looks of the close of the market today.

Posted by: runningmom1 | Nov 21, 2008 5:51:52 PM

I thought Obama wanted CHANGE. All I see is former Clinton's cabinet members as Obama's cabinet. Also, didn't OBAMA say that he wanted a BI-PARTISAN Cabinet? Yes, he did, gosh it looks like all Dem's and one independent....
Does Obama have a hard time with remembering what he has said?

Posted by: 55Mariposa | Nov 21, 2008 5:50:27 PM

I didn't expect this choice; but I think its awesome! I get more optimistic with every choice. Richardson as commerce secretary is also strong.

Posted by: nina | Nov 21, 2008 5:44:28 PM

Damn he is not a Clintonite.

What is Obama doing????

We only want Clinton People. We don't want change.

Posted by: Steve_NJ | Nov 21, 2008 5:38:01 PM

I just checked this guy's resume out, sounds pretty impressive to me!

Posted by: Stacy | Nov 21, 2008 5:14:04 PM

Sheila Bair is a lion! she would be great.

Posted by: trueblue | Nov 21, 2008 5:13:37 PM

YAYYYYYYYYYY!!

Posted by: Question | Nov 21, 2008 4:57:43 PM

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