Obama Under Pressure To Pick Treasury Secretary Quickly (SLIDESHOW)

President-elect Barack Obama may feel some pressure to pick a new Treasury Secretary very quickly. BloggingStocks suggest that if the Obama picks a Treasury Secretary, he might do well to work with President Bush to nominate him or her and get approval immediately in order to help the transition:

Further, Wang said it would be a good idea, from both crisis management and continuity standpoints, for President Bush to nominate the new president's successor to the current Treasury Secretary, after the president-elect has determined who he will recommend for the post.

The Senate Banking Committee could then hold hearings on the nominee shortly after Election Day, with the lame-duck U.S. Senate voting on the nominee this fall, Wang said. The aforementioned will allow for a quicker transition of the critical Treasury Secretary post, Wang said, than waiting until January 2009 to start to the Treasury nominee review process

The New York Times suggested that the grounds to make a new Treasury Secretary decision quickly had been set prior to the election:

Already, many are counseling Mr. Obama on how he should approach the handling of the financial crisis come Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. His colleague in the Senate, Charles Schumer, said on "Charlie Rose" last week that the new president must quickly name a new Treasury secretary and bolster the regulatory system that oversees Wall Street.

In an article written before Election Night, Breakingviews argued that the Federal Reserve must be remade in the image of one of Mr. Obama's most prominent financial advisers. "The president-elect should change the Fed's structure and mandate it to take aim only at inflation, so as to force its future chiefs to act more like Mr. Volcker," it argues.

In a view written after the returns were counted, Breakingviews says that Mr. Obama's choices may be limited, despite the large margins of victory he racked up in the popular vote and in the Electoral College. Increasing spending and monetary expansion are virtually impossible, so the president-elect must take pains to work within what will surely be constricting boundaries.

Some of the likely candidates for Treasury Secretary in an Obama administration:

• • • • • • Wall Street put a stop to a terrifying decline and stormed higher Friday following reports that President-elect Barack Obama plans to name New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary.

Read more about the possible choices:
::New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine
::Clinton-era Treasury Secretary Larry Summers
::Tim Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
::Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker

RELATED:
See more potential picks for Obama's cabinet

Comments

[jubei]

PAUL KRUGMAN OR WARREN BUFFETT PLEASE MR.PRESIDE­NT!!!!

[Octoberon]

"I do have some kind of a grandiose view ... that we need some public institutions that have integrity and are recognized to have integrity. People can respect them for their professionalism and continuity and so forth. There is a certain scarcity of that in the United States, as well as other countries, today."
Paul Volcker

OK, not a young man, but he has a tremendous depth of experience.

[Carolab]

LARRY!!! PICK LARRY!!!

[berrycooda]

What's the big rush....

He won't be Pres. until Jan. The election was only 3 days ago....giv­e him time to think.

Sounds like a bunch of good ol' boys trying to GUIDE or is that MISGUIDE him into making a
hasty decision..­..

Remember the song " let me sleep on it"

I think that a lot of the older fellars are looking at Pres-elect Obama as a youngster and they
have to "teach him all they know" Maybe he needs to go in a room and shut the door for awhile.

[libmac]

Go to change.gov (Office of the President-Elect) and tell them who you want (or don't want) nominated. I think Obama should avoid anyone from the finance industry, and pick an economist. Paul Krugman, anyone?

[LoyalOpposition]

I'd like to see George Soros as Secretary of the Treasury. This man is smart.

[zull2]

It's really too bad people are putting Obama under pressure to pick a treasury secretary quickly. I'd much rather him take his time and think it through, get someone in there who isn't and hasn't been a part of the problem over the last 30 years...in­stead of picking one of the people who were "seasoned" within this system over that time.

[allwrite]

Roger that!!

[LisaJeanM]

Summers or Giethner, judging from the limited knowledge I have on these four men. Volcker seems too old, Corzine seems much too sleazy.

[Jesster]

While my impressions of Summers are at best, ambivalent (sp?) at least he's not Phil Gramm... While I think it's a good thing that he staffs some positions with experienced "insiders" it has to be balanced with highly qualified and trustworthy "fresh faced" leaders in the making of new policies and innovative ideas.

[Carolab]

If you will read up on the backstory behind Gramm pushing his awful Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (which created the Enron Loophole and the deregulation of credit default swaps that brought down this economy) you will realize that Larry Summers was the firewall blocking its passage.

Larry Summers is an unsung hero!

[exit116]

Has to be Geithner, he's young, bright, and pragmatic. He's a protege of Summers and Rubin and seems to be an economic centrist. He's right at the center of the bailouts so he has intimate knowledge of the crisis we're in,he'd be an excellent choice.

[Bilka]

Who is this nut Burdick, and why am I reading his deranged blather?

[themodernleader]

Selection of cabinet members should be a rational, deliberate process including the recommendations and advice of many respected citizens of character and competence. I believe that Obama will not be stampeded into making decisions before the search for the most competent citizens for each position has followed through. Staff selection may be the most important decision he makes. And the decisions Cabinet members make could very well be the most important decisions they make. This organization must have in place the most competent, courageous administrators this Republic has to offer for the terrible times ahead.

[Britishdemocrat]

I can't imagine what the pressure is like on Obama and his team to get this country back together. He faces the worst threats a president has ever faced. A crumbling economy, a losing war on terror, global warming and all the other things Bush has done wrong. As soon as he comes to office, Obama will have to unite the country and there will be some who will not be united easily.

[ToddlerJ]

Prez elect should be looking for an economist outside the banking industry so as to provide a better view and understanding of the issues that continue to plague the financial system. It's not just the banks, there appears to be many headwind issues, not the least of which is the volatility in the price of oil.

[koulflo]

Napolitano for DHS
see
http://koulflo.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/napolitano-for-dhs-chief/