Obama names high-profile economic advisory panel

President Barack Obama yesterday named an advisory panel led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to help guide his efforts to rescue the economy and rebuild the shattered US financial system.

President Obama used a White House ceremony announcing the members of his new Economic Recovery Advisory Board to prod Congress to pass his economic stimulus package, a need he said was reinforced by the latest "devastating" job losses.

"It is inexcusable and irresponsible for any of us to get bogged down in distraction and delay or politics as usual while millions of Americans are being put out of work," Mr Obama said. "Now is the time for Congress to act."

Mr Volcker said the entire 15-member panel, effectively a team of rivals ranging from business executives to labour leaders and including experts from inside and outside of the new administration, shared Mr Obama's "sense of urgency."

The Labour Department said yesterday that US employers slashed 598,000 jobs in January, the deepest cut in payrolls in 34 years, and the jobless rate shot up to 7.6 per cent in a sign of deepening recession.

Mr Volcker, highly respected across party lines, is among several high-profile players advising Mr Obama on economic policy as he confronts the worst financial crisis in decades.

The team includes Lawrence Summers, a former Treasury Secretary who now heads the National Economic Council, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who previously headed the New York Fed. Another important aide is Christina Romer, who chairs the White House Council of Economic Advisers and is an expert on the Great Depression.

Other members included Robert Wolf, chairman and chief executive officer of UBS Group Americas, and Jim Owens, chairman and chief executive of Caterpillar Inc, and labour leaders such as Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union.

Penny Pritzker, chairman and founder of Pritzker Realty Group who was also the finance chair of Mr Obama's presidential campaign, will sit on the board as will Laura D'Andrea Tyson, a former Clinton administration economist.

The panel includes some officials who served Republican administrations, such as William Donaldson, who was Securities and Exchange Commission chairman under former President George W. Bush, and Harvard economist Martin Feldstein, who served in the Reagan administration.

Mr Obama has stepped up pressure on Congress to pass a more than $800 billion package of public works spending projects and tax cuts aimed at lifting the economy out of recession. He has set a mid-February deadline for getting the bill to his desk.

Meanwhile, Mr Geithner plans on Monday to unveil a plan to quell turmoil in the banking system and revive frozen credit markets.

President Obama has also said one of his key priorities is overhauling a Wall Street regulatory structure whose laxity he believes helped to set the stage for the financial meltdown.

When he announced the idea of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board in November, President Obama said its intent was to help him avoid "insular" government decision-making.

The panel members

The economic panel will be chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Austan Goolsbee, a long-time Obama adviser, is the board's staff director and chief economist. Mr Goolsbee is also a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Following are the names of the other 15 people who will serve on the board:

• William Donaldson, who served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Bush administration from 2003 to 2005

• Roger Ferguson Jr., president and chief executive officer of TIAA-CREF and a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors

• Robert Wolf, chairman and chief executive officer of UBS Group Americas

• David Swensen, chief investment officer at Yale University

• Mark Gallogly, founder and managing partner of the private equity firm Centerbridge Partners L.P.

• Penny Pritzker, chairman and founder of Pritzker Realty Group. Mr Pritzker was the national finance chairwoman of Mr Obama's presidential campaign

• John Doerr, a partner at venture-capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers

• Jim Owens, chairman and chief executive of Caterpillar Inc

• Monica Lozano, publisher and chief executive officer of the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion

• Charles Phillips, president of Oracle Corp

• Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union

• Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO labour organisation

• Laura D'Andrea Tyson, dean of the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. Ms Tyson was a White House economic adviser to former President Bill Clinton and advised Mr Obama during his presidential campaign

• Martin Feldstein, a Harvard University economics professor and former top economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan.

• Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive officer of General Electric.