President Barack Obama

Paul Volcker, 81, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve during the 1980s, has been appointed by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as head of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. The announcement was made at a Chicago news conference. Obama indicated that the board would include as a top staff official Austan Goolsbee, who is a University of Chicago economist.

Volcker has experience with economic crises, having led the Fed under presidents Carter and Reagan from 1979 to 1987. As a central banker, Volcker raised interest rates and restricted the money supply, and during that period America experienced one of its worst recessions.

Paul Volcker helped bring inflation under control, and his policies led to three decades of low inflation, a turnaround from the 1980s when inflation was out of control. “He pulls no punches,” Obama said of Volcker. “He seems to be fairly opinionated.”

On the same day that Obama announced the appointment of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, the government revealed that jobless claims had remained very high, while American consumers were cutting back on their spending. The economic crisis continues to get worse.

It is reported that president-elect Barack Obama has chosen Timothy Geithner, currently head of the New York Federal Reserve, to be his Treasury secretary, at a time when U.S. financial markets are descending with alarming rapidity. The 47-year-old Geithner has been speculated on as one of Obama’s top picks for Treasury since the November 4 election.

The stock market, after suffering unprecedented losses earlier in the week, entered a rally with the news that Timothy Geithner would be heading the Treasury Department. Many in the financial community view Timothy Geithner as the ideal person to spearhead the incoming Obama administration’s response to the global economic crisis.

The news of Geithner’s appointment comes at a time when reports suggest that Citibank may be up for sale, after suffering staggering losses. Meanwhile, the domestic auto companies continue to stand on a cliff, being a knife’s edge from insolvency.

The former U.S. Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, reportedly has been selected by president-elect Barack Obama as Health and Human Services secretary. In the role of Health and Human Services secretary, Tom Daschle will exercise an important role in Obama’s plan to provide healthcare coverage for all Americans, including the 47 million citizens who do not currently have medical insurance.

Tom Daschle was one of the earliest supporters of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, at a time when Hillary Clinton was considered the clear front runner. Daschle is heading the health-care policy group as part of the Obama transition team, in preparation for Barack Obama’s inauguration as 44th president on January 20.

Tom Daschle was elected to the Senate in 1986 from South Dakota. He was the senior Senate Democrat between 1994 and 2004, and served as majority leader  between 2001 and 2003. Daschle served in Congress for eight years prior to being elected senator.

President-elect Barack Obama, and future First Lady Michelle Obama, both appeared last night on CBS 60 Minutes. This was Obama’s first interview since the November 4 presidential election.

During the course of the interview, Barack Obama answered questions on a wide range of topics, including the economy, national security and plans to include Republicans in the new administration’s cabinet. Michelle joined her husband in responding to questions on how they planned on raising their daughters after moving into the White House. The interview was a major coup for CBS, while also offering the viewing public an opportunity to assess how the 44th president is handling the transition into the new administration. Obama projected his typically calm demeanor throughout the interview, while making clear he views the unfolding global economic crisis as a matter of great urgency for the nation.

The incoming Obama administration will inherit many economic and financial disasters from the outgoing Bush administration, not the least the imploding automobile industry. The big three Detroit carmakers are all on the verge of bankruptcy. If GM, Ford and Chrysler are dissolved, millions of workers will lose their jobs. The numbers are high because many spin-off businesses depend on Detroit, including parts suppliers, advertising agencies, dealerships and service centers.

Barack Obama stated as a high priority while campaigning facilitating the retooling of Detroit to build a new generation of fuel-efficient cars, leading to the creation of many new jobs. It is clear that President Barack Obama, early in his administration, will need to focus on saving America’s auto industry. Speculation has centered on the creation of czar for the auto industry, and Obama may very well follow through on that possibility. Whatever is decided, Obama’s policies regarding America’s troubled auto industry will impact the health of the overall economy at a time of global economic crisis.

Barack Obama has been elected 44th President of the United States, and thousands of items connected with America’s first African-American president are now being listed on Ebay. One of the most expensive is an Internet domain name certain to be one of the most highly coveted in the world after the inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th president; BarackObama44thPresident.com.

Listed with a minimum bid of $10 million, the domain name BarackObama44thPresident.com reflects the unique status of Barack Obama as an international superstar celebrity, and the historic nature of his election as 44th president of the United States.

Other Obama domain names being auctioned on Ebay for high prices include ObamaFirstFamily.com and PresidentBarackObamaUSA.com.

Barack Obama has stated that the U.S. has only one president at a time, so he will not be present at the November 15 emergency meeting of the G20 in Washington DC, which is discussing the global financial and economic crisis. President George W. Bush is presiding over the summit, addressing what he himself termed the “meltdown” of the world’s financial system.

Bush is widely viewed as an ineffective lame-duck president, so the world leaders attending the meeting are keen to develop close ties with the incoming Obama administration. Though Barack Obama will not be at the G20 meeting, he will have high level representatives in attendance, who doubtless will be approached by the world leaders eager to sound out the initial economic plans of president-elect Barack Obama.

More information on the global economic crisis can be found at the website,

http://www.globaleconomiccrisis.com

According to several press reports, president-elect Barack Obama is considering tow of his democratic rivals in the primary campaign for the job of Secretary of State. Senator Hillary Clinton and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson have been mentioned for the job of running America’s foreign policy establishment.

Hillary Clinton is surprising as a possible head of the State Department, since she lacks convincing foreign policy credentials. Bill Richardson, however, has served as the UN ambassador during the Clinton administration, and was a negotiator with North Korea on the nuclear issue. Also, unlike Hillary Clinton, Richardson does not bring the baggage of a Bill Clinton. It is possible that there are other contenders as well.