I find this to be very encouraging:
President-elect Barack Obama will appoint former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Wednesday to be the chairman of a new White House advisory board tasked with helping to lift the nation from recession and stabilize financial markets, Democratic officials say.
The panel will be called the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Volcker is one of the true heroes of Central Banking and American economics. He is the rare political player who is willing to make the difficult and unpopular decision, regardless of the polls and politics. Some people believe you just have to do what’s right, and not what’s expedient. If a President wanted to get the real story — stright up no chaser — than you cannot do any better than Volcker.
This is a savvy move by the President-elect, counter-balancing what many perceive as a Clinton-heavy economics team. The advisory panel will brief the president directly, and provide expert advice outside the usual channels.
The WSJ noted the panel is “modeled on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board established by then-President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, at the height of the Cold War, when officials worried that that the existing bureaucratic structure was inadequate to help the U.S. keep pace with the Soviet threat. The financial crisis has drawn similar worries that the government isn’t properly organized to monitor and respond to modern financial markets.”
Note that Volcker has his own NYTimes Topic page here.
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Sources:
Volcker Tapped for Advisory Role
Jonathan Weisman
WSJ, NOVEMBER 26, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122767048323359165.html
Paul Volcker for Treasury Secretary
JOE NOCERA
NYT, October 17, 2008
The Return of Larry Summers
DAVID LEONHARDT
NYT, November 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/business/economy/26leonhardt.html
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