Who's who on Obama's new economic advisory board

President Obama today named the members of his new Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which he said would assure that his decisions on the economy would be guided in part by voices "beyond the Washington echo chamber."

"We will meet regularly so that I can hear different ideas and sharpen my own, and seek counsel that is candid and informed by the wider world," Obama said at a news conference.

Despite Wall Street’s savaged image with the public, Obama gave one seat on the 15-member board to Robert Wolf, the CEO of investment bank UBS Group Americas. No surprise, of course, that Wolf was a big fundraiser for Obama's presidential campaign.

The private-equity business also is represented, via Mark T. Gallogly, founder of Centerbridge Partners in New York and another Obama fundraiser.

Silicon Valley got two seats: John Doerr, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers; and Charles E. Phillips, Jr., president of software giant Oracle Corp.

The board will be chaired by Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman and one of Obama’s top economic advisors.

The other members:

• Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union
• William H. Donaldson, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
• Martin Feldstein, professor of economics at Harvard University
• Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., CEO of retirement fund TIAA-CREF
• Jeffrey R. Immelt, CEO of General Electric
• Monica C. Lozano, publisher and CEO of La Opinion
• Jim Owens, CEO of Caterpillar Inc.
• Penny Pritzker, founder of Pritzker Realty Group
• David F. Swensen, chief investment officer of Yale University
• Richard L. Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO
• Laura D'Andrea Tyson, dean of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley

-- Tom Petruno

Photo: President Obama with Paul Volcker, chairman of the new Economic Recovery Advisory Board, at a news conference today. Credit: Ron Edmonds / Associated Press

Comments

[adam smith]

I am glad you made thelink between fundraising and political position "payback". Wolf is a joke. He presided over a firm that lost over $40BILLION dollars in subprime alone. He also was at the helm whn UBS was sued by stares for the Auction Rate Preferred scandal. So examine the hypocrisy of Obama: He trumpeted teh coming of change and being an advocate for working class people. Wolf was someone who was asleep at the switch, had no clue qaas to the risks the company was taking and let his company lose so much money. How can he be be a valuable contributor to fixing this global problem? He was part of the problem! So what does Obama do? He invites a guy who was makjng 10+mil/year working at a firm that made tons of money with products that actually caused working class people to lose a lot of personal wealth (auction rate preferreds) and lose their homes (subprime). Obama is no different than all the other politiicans. He may be packaged differently (man of color), but under the skin it's all about trading favors.

This economic council reminds me of JFKs attempt to band together the brightest academics to help him lead. Their arrogance as a group led to little change. It will be interesting to see this group at work. I wonder if they will be able to find a room big enough to house their collective egos.

Heaven help us all..

[Bridgett]

OMG!! What have we done to our Country???

[Lonny Frank]

Not to mention the fact that there is a strong change that he will be booted once the investigation of his college buddy and parner Shulman who is beinng investiagted by the feds. One final thought is of course the hiding off US assets ...

[David V]

I'm glad to see Volcker chairing the group--he is largely responsible for the twenty years of prosperity that kicked off in 1982. But the other names on the panel aren't particularly impressive. Where is Paul Krugman? Where are other leading economists? It leads me to the conclusion that this is a vanity board for contributors, and Volker agreed to baby-sit it. The only voice out of this group worth hearing is Volcker's--presumably, he already has Obama's ear and agreed to chair this group as a favor.

[vonrock]

Rats on viagra

[Mescla Man]

Hey, give this advisory board a break. The point isn't to get the best economists (e.g. more people like Martin Feldstein). The point is to have diversity of opinion. So this board represents software, venture capital, manufacturing, unions, retirement funds, banking, academia, etc.

The fact that they have diverse backgrounds means they'll provide better guidance. If they were all economists, they would be unlikely to think of the important perspectives represented by this group.

[Don]

Yes, why is Paul Krugman not on the list? Krugman just won the nobel prize in economics. He could be the greatest living progressive economist. What's Obama's problem here?

[Steve]

It looks as if two out of fifteen members are in the business of creating wealth and jobs, while the rest think about, speculate in, or give loans to the real economy. That is, apart from the pair whose job it is to defend the status quo with respect to their memberships' existing union contracts, without compelling incentives for thinking further. The two academic economists are good choices for shaping discussion, but I wouldn't think of them as operational.

Of the two that create things, Caterpillar is nimble and in touch with the world. GE is tanking and sending sensitive technology to Iran under CEO Immelt. Maybe that leaves us only ONE representative of the sort of business to which America should pay attention as we figure out what role the government can play, not just for triage for the victims of Wall Street idiocy but -- here's an idea -- for getting the economy to grow again.

[C.d.]

Where the heck is NOURIEL RHOUBINI, one of the only ones who predicted the bursting of the real estate bubble and who has no skeletons in his closet! HELLOOOOOOOO Washington!?

[Carole Brown]

I applaud President Obama's reaching to a wider body of thinkers as he hones his own thinking regarding our current economic dilemma. I search in vain, however, for representation from people who have face-to-face, one-to-one, hands-on relationships with the poor, the most needy of our country.
Allow me to recommend David Hilfiker, MD. David is a Thinker and an author. David has worked with the poor. David has done deep, compassionate, and clear thinking about justice and the distribution of wealth in this country. His is an invaluable voice and he, and his ilk, belong among our President's economic thinkers.
I refer you to davidhilfiker.com

[skyblu5555]

There you have it! Change you all can believe in! Penny Pritzer???? Nah, no conflict of interest (she bankrolled Obama's Presidential campaign)! Milton Friedman?

Notice: Candidate Obama said he would keep Washington DC lobbyists out of his Administration: but NOT Lobbyists who lobbied THE STATE! UBS Warburg? Oy Vey 'S M'r! Worse than BUSH SR AND BUSH JR COMBINED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

USA= Bunch of Soft Lemmings....and Your Children Will Be Working? Where?
Doing What???????????

What OHB Should've Done:
1. NO $700 billion bailout for banks
2. Establish Emergency Halt to All Layoffs
3. Ord7er the FBI as TOP PRIORITY! Go after the OFFSHORE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS OF THESE B*ST*RDS and reclaim what belongs to the people of the U.S.A., ie, taxes owed the USA! This would:
a) stop the practice of offshoring money
b) replenish the Treasury with more than enough to repair and upgrade US infrastructure; fund all veterans health, welfare, educational needs; build state of the art hospitals and fund medical school education for the US best and the brightest; build or provide zero interest loans to municipalities and counties to build LIGHT RAIL so people don't have to have autos ; shore up social security; provide universal healthcare AND SO ON!

But NOONE HAS THE BALLS TO DO WHAT IS NECESSARY!!!

Fire Obama's "Economic Advisory Team"...we need ACTION...we need PROGRESSIVE NOT REGRESSIVE ACTION!!!!

[Teresa Dentino]

John Doerr, Jeff Immelt, David Swensen not impressive? Chosen only for their campaign contributions? LOL

Ohh, and here's another update:

After Franklin Roosevelt called Joe Kennedy to Washington to clean up the Securities and Exchange Commission, somebody asked F.D.R. why he had tapped such a crook. "Takes one to catch one," replied Roosevelt. Kennedy's reforming work as SEC Chairman was widely praised on all sides, as investors realized the SEC was protecting their interests. His knowledge of the financial markets equipped him to identify areas requiring the attention of regulators.

[Misty]

Yale, and especially Harvard, are clearly not immune from producing some very unethical politicians and CEO's.

[Skeptical]

Presidential advisory boards provide no substantive input on policy decisions. If they did, we would have no need for Cabinet and Sub-Cabinet agencies. Volcker was the Fed Chairman in the 80's - Reagan didn't appoint him to some political figleaf advisory board.

[see more clearly]

I too wonder why Paul Krugman isn't on the list. Perhaps it is because the advice is either unimportant and the board is a "figleaf" or Obama is clearly out of touch with the best economic minds in the U.S.
There surely must be more to choose from that what is there. No significant educators, no scientists, etc. The economic state of our nation just doesn't depend on Wall St and Catepillar. NO representative from Steinway Piano, no rep from RCA , no rep from Singer Sewing Machine, what gives? I forgot--we don't manufacture anything these days --just `180$ Nikes from Indonesia.
So much for CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN.

[Mike]

Hmm.. I wonder what happened to Warren Buffett?

[nihil]

Sorry Sceptical --Volcker was appointed by Jimmy Carter, it is said, on the understanding that the the White House would not complain when he stopped the monetary expansion and the economy tanked. I remember those days well -- people speculating in table silver and collector's gold coins--- well he did and it did, and it certainly cost Carter the election -- which was close. Two brave men saved the world economy, the collapse of which both men bore some responsibbility. The subsequent deficit in FY1982-83 were huge as a percentage of Full Employment GDP --- bigger than anything seen or to be seen until FY2009-2010-2011.....and Reagan did not reappoint him.

[Julian]

Just let the man do his job. Sit down, buckle yourself in and shut up!

[Julian]

Very good insert Teresa Dentino ; - ). Two thumbs up.

[Aine]

Huge disappointment to see Immelt of GE on this list. Not surprising, though, I guess. Obama owes GE big time for helping to run his campaign. GE owned NBC...MSNBC...

Politics of hope and change? Hmmmm....

[Fred Lundgren]

The new economic advisory committee lacks a real liason to the working wounded public. Most of the individuals appointed are what we, the working class, refer to as the "upper crust". Few, if any of these appointees can recognize or respond to immediate need, as the concept has been long ago smothered under their personal success, vanity, and in some cases, greed. All of these people have one thing in common, they are all at the top of their game. They want for not. Most, if not all, are positioned to weather this economic storm without missing a beat. Why not reach out and take advise from some of us who live and work on the lower shelf?
Let me throw out the first curve ball of the season. In my opinion, we must take some of the control away from the central bank and, instead of printing debt instruments for the fed to digest and excrete as credit, simply reauthorize a healthy printing of United States notes and spend them into circulation by state and local governments. Then, force the Fed to raise the reserve requirments of local banks when, and if, the notes start to cause inflation.