Friday November 7, 04:37 PM
WRAPUP 3-Grim jobs data released ahead of Obama meeting
By Deborah Charles and Caren Bohan
CHICAGO, Nov 7 (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama prepared to meet his economic advisers on Friday as new U.S. jobless figures underlined the enormity of the task confronting him to stabilize an economy
that is shedding jobs fast.
Job losses in October were worse than feared, with employers cutting payrolls by 240,000, according to the Labor Department. So far this year, 1.2 million U.S. jobs have been lost and the unemployment rate at 6.5 percent, is at its highest level since 1994.
After two days which saw Wall Street plunge around 10 percent before pulling out of its dive on Friday, Obama and vice president-elect Joe Biden will hear from economists, businessmen and policy experts on how to deal with the worst U.S. financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Obama, who won a sweeping victory in Tuesday's election in part because of his economic promises, has assembled a 17-member transition economic advisory board.
He must now decide who to put on his White House team and how to implement promised measures. A president-elect would typically take weeks to settle on cabinet choices. But in light of the financial crisis Obama is moving swiftly and will likely name his economic team soon.
The economic advisory board includes former Treasury secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, former Labor secretary Robert Reich, former chair of the National Economy Council Laura Tyson, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and billionaire Warren Buffett.
Others on the board include Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG - news) chairman Eric Schmidt, Xerox (NYSE: XRX - news) chairman Anne Mulcahy and Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX - news) . chairman Richard Parsons.
In interviews on morning television, Summers said the meeting would focus on job losses.
'We didn't get into this situation in a day or a week, and we're not going to get out of it in a day or a week. And there's not going to be a silver bullet,' he said on NBC's 'Today' show.
'What there is going to be is a comprehensive approach that focuses on supporting the spending and the needs of middle-class families, that focuses on getting credit flowing again in our economy, that engages with the rest of the world, because we're so dependent on exports.'
After the meeting, at 1:30 p.m. CST (1930 GMT), Obama will face the news media for the first time since the election, which will make him the first black American president when he is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
NO PERSONNEL ANNOUNCEMENTS
Obama will likely face questions about who he plans to appoint to various Cabinet posts and other aspects of the transition. But aide Stephanie Cutter said Obama would not make any announcements on personnel appointments on Friday.
Obama has acknowledged the urgency of revitalizing the economy and he is expected to quickly make key appointments to his economic team.
The market is looking closely at who Obama will name as Treasury Secretary. Top candidates for the job included Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Summers and Volcker.
A Reuters poll of economists found 26 of 48 respondents thought Geithner would be chosen for the job, while Summers came second with 14 votes.
Whoever takes the Treasury job will guide the $700 billion economic bailout package and the regulatory reform needed to prevent a repeat of the current crisis.
Obama and his economic advisers will likely talk about the $700 billion package and also about a possible second fiscal stimulus package the Democratic-run Congress is expected to address either in mid-November or when the new Congress convenes in early January.
'We expect President-elect Obama to move decisively to address economic stress,' said Jan Hatzius, senior economist at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - news) . 'We suspect he will support even more fiscal stimulus than the $200 billion we have penciled into our forecast. Congress could move on this even before the change-over on January 20.'
The economic advisers may also discuss how to help U.S. automakers, who are facing an unprecedented financial crisis. The automakers are lobbying for up to $50 billion to prevent a collapse that could cost over two million jobs.
(Additional reporting by Ross Colvin in Washington, Pedro Nicolaci da Costa in New York, editing by Alan Elsner) (For more about the U.S. political scene, visit Reuters 'Tales from the Trail: 2008' online at http:/blogs.reuters.com/trail08/) (For full U.S. political coverage double click on US/VOTE]) Keywords: USA ELECTION/
|
Send Article by Email
Send Article by IM
Blog This with Y! 360
Printable View
