Campaigns Expand Economic Teams In Response To Crisis

Campaigns Expand Economic Teams In Response To Crisis

On Tuesday night, as the federal government was seizing control of insurance giant AIG, Sen. Barack Obama was speeding toward a Hollywood fundraiser. The Democratic presidential nominee had 20 minutes before he arrived, he told his economic policy coordinator, and he wanted to spend it receiving input from his new economic brain trust.

Former Treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin found an urgent conference call request waiting for him as his plane arrived in New York from Europe at 9:45 that night. Former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker was on a Manhattan street, talking on his cellphone and hustling to find a land line. Former Treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers joined in, as did former Clinton White House economist Laura Tyson. Barbra Streisand would go on as scheduled at the Obama event in Los Angeles, but in Manhattan, other events had seized the attention of the Democrat's campaign.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot