Obama: 'Help is on the way' for economy

updated 11:44 a.m. ET Nov. 26, 2008

CHICAGO - President-elect Barack Obama named a board of economic experts from outside the government to advise him, in his latest bid to reassure nervous consumers and financial markets that he will bring swift economic relief as president.

Obama made the announcement Wednesday in Chicago at a morning news conference in which he tried to reassure Americans that "help is on the way" for the economy.

"I was elected with the charge of getting this economy back in shape," Obama said Wednesday. "We are going to implement starting Day One when I come into office."

He also pushed back against criticism that he was recycling former Clinton administration officials as he builds his new economic team. He said his Cabinet would "combine experience with fresh thinking."

The panel — called the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board — is intended to help Obama bring stability to the financial markets and create jobs.

Former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, 81, will head the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, while the board's top staff official will be Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist.

"He pulls no punches," Obama said of Volcker. "He seems to be fairly opinionated."

Former President Jimmy Carter named Volcker Fed chairman in 1979, a time of high inflation and high unemployment. Volcker helped tame inflation by raising interest rates, despite intense opposition by some in Congress. Volcker's moves helped plunge the economy into recession in the short term, but he was later credited with reviving the economy by getting inflation under control. Volcker served as Fed chairman until 1987.

It was Obama's third news conference in as many days as Americans moved into the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

On Tuesday, Obama introduced Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag as his candidate to run the White House Office of Management and Budget. The president-elect also pledged a "page-by-page, line-by-line" budget review to root out unneeded spending.

On Monday, Obama tapped New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner as his treasury secretary and named several other top economic advisers.

His economic team largely complete, Obama was expected next week to introduce national security officials, including Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state. Aides said the New York senator had not yet formally accepted the offer, but transition officials have indicated that the nomination is on track.

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Obama also was expected to announce he had asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remain at the Pentagon for a year. James Jones, a former Marine Corps commandant and NATO commander, was Obama's pick to be national security adviser.

Obama defended his selection of former Clinton officials to help run his administration.

"The American people would be troubled if I selected a treasury secretary or a chairman of the National Economic Council at one of the most critical economic times in our history who had no experience in government whatsoever," Obama said.

"What we are going to do is combine experience with fresh thinking," he said. "But understand where the vision for change comes from. First and foremost, it comes from me. That's my job, is to provide a vision in terms of where we are going and to make sure then that my team is implementing."

At his news conference Tuesday, Obama set no goals for reducing the federal deficit — now in record territory and headed ever higher. On Monday, he announced plans for a massive economic stimulus plan that Democrats have said could cost as much as $700 billion.

On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said his country will host an April 2 meeting of the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging economies to discuss the financial crisis. Brown told lawmakers in London that Obama has said he will attend the talks.

With his Electoral College landslide victory, Obama said he has a "mandate to move the country in a new direction, and not continue the same old practices that have gotten us into the fix we're in."

At the same time, the Democratic president-elect pledged to consult with Republicans and approach his administration with humility "and a recognition that wisdom is not the monopoly of any one party."

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