Quote from SouthAmerica:
.
November 28, 2008
SouthAmerica: I would give Barack Obamaâs economic team an A+ grade with just an exception.
You canât go wrong when you have on your team people such as Paul Volcker.
I am sure that Larry Summers will be a very influential member of his economic team
His nominee for secretary of the Treasury is Tim Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the past five years.
Obama also announced the creation of a President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board - and Paul Volcker will lead this new board.
Basically I have a problem with only one member of his economic team: Tim Geithner.
During the confirmation hearings they should place this guy under a microscope and check out his performance as a president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the past five years. They should check a number of things very closely as follows:
1) As a regulator â his relationships with Citi group. (A bank under his supervision went from being the largest bank in the US 2 years ago â to become the latest joke of the US financial system.)
2) This guy played a major role in the demise of Lehman Brothers. He has a close relationship with the Goldman Sacks Mafia Network. The question is: Did Goldman Sacks influence the decision to let Lehman Brothers die such a sudden death? If that is the case such a miscalculation by Tim Geithner caused a global financial Tsunami and he should not be the next US Treasury Secretary.
3) By the way, Tim Geithner has had a very close relationship with the current Treasury Secretary Paulson during this entire financial crisis â and Henry Paulsonâs performance, as Treasury Secretary is nothing to write home about it.
*****
In case Tim Geithner confirmation is rejected tobe the next US Treasury Secretary then I would suggest that they consider replacing him with Stephen Roach.
For the position of US Labor Secretary a very good choice would be Jeremy Rifkin.
*****
Barack Obama is in the right track regarding his economic team, but people must keep in mind that in January 2009 when he becomes the new US president he is going to inherit a wreckage of a country in the beginning of a new Great Depression.
It is anybodyâs guess how the new US economic system will work in the future - after the sudden demise of the economic capitalist system the US had until a few months ago.
During 2008 the global economy has changed in drastic ways that we will be able to see it more clearly only few years from now when we look back and try to understand what has happened.
Even with this A+ economic team it will take a long time to sort out the wreckage left behind by the Bush administration and establish a new direction for the US economy. Even the great minds that will be charting a new direction for the US economy starting in 2009 canât change all the damage that still is coming in the pipeline and will push the US economy downward â just God knows for how long.
.
And how did this "A+ economic team" do so far?