Obama Speaks on Skills for America's Future

Background on Skills for America's Future.
The President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board meeting chaired by Paul Volcker:

Obama's Remarks Prior to Meeting with Economic Advisers

As republicans try to tie Obama to Goldman Sachs (that's really funny), Obama is working to pass financial regulations.
Transcript. This video includes Obama's remarks and the full meeting of the PERAB advisers (see members here), about an hour long, which was live streamed:

Obama Speaks Limiting Size and Risks of Banks

Update Jan. 21: See video of Obama's remarks here.

Obama will speak at 11:42 am. See the rest of his schedule today below.

President Barack Obama on Thursday is expected to propose new limits on the size and risk taken by the country's biggest banks, marking the administration's latest assault on Wall Street in what could mark a return, at least in spirit, to some of the curbs on finance put in place during the Great Depression, according to congressional sources and administration officials.

The past decade saw widespread consolidation among large financial institutions to create huge banking titans. If Congress approves the proposal, the White House plan could permanently impose government constraints on the size and nature of banking.

Mr. Obama's proposal is expected to include new scale restrictions on the size of the country's largest financial institutions. The goal would be to deter banks from becoming so large they put the broader economy at risk and to also prevent banks from becoming so large they distort normal competitive forces. It couldn't be learned what precise limits the White House will endorse, or whether Mr. Obama will spell out the exact limits on Thursday.

Mr. Obama is also expected to endorse, for the first time publicly, measures pushed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, which would place restrictions on the proprietary trading done by commercial banks, essentially limiting the way banks bet with their own capital. Administration officials say they want to place "firewalls" between different divisions of financial companies to ensure banks don't indirectly subsidize "speculative" trading through other subsidiaries that hold federally insured deposits. WSJ

Obama Holds Economic Meeting -Video

The meeting was live streamed. Full video:

Paul Volcker Speaks to Maria Bartiromo on the Economy

Paul Volcker says our economy needs to undergo a shift in order to have sustained economic growth. Bartiromo seems to be trying her darndest to get Volcker to say something in particular, to slam the Obama administration? Volcker gets cagey.
Obama called together his economic advisors today. Watch that here.

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Obama Meets With Economic Advisors Video

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Members of the team:
Members

• Paul Volcker, Chairman
• Austan Goolsbee, Staff Director and Chief Economist
• William H. Donaldson, Former Chairman, SEC
• Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., President & CEO, TIAA-CREF
• Robert Wolf, Chairman & CEO, UBS Group Americas
• David F. Swensen, Chief Investment Officer, Yale University
• Mark T. Gallogly, Founder & Managing Partner, Centerbridge Partners L.P.
• Penny Pritzker, Chairman & Founder, Pritzker Realty Group
• John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers
• Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO, GE
• James W. Owens, Chairman and CEO, Caterpillar Inc.
• Monica C. Lozano, Publisher & Chief Executive Officer, La Opinion
• Charles E. Phillips, Jr., President, Oracle Corporation
• Anna Burger, Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU
• Richard L. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO
• Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Dean, Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley
Read the memo from the meeting that gives kudos to Paul Krugman on cap and trade here.

Do People Even Want to Borrow Money?

The Federal Reserve begins two-day meetings on Tuesday, which means that the stock market could continue its track up or go back down, depending on how investors view the meeting. There is a chicken and egg thing going on. Will freeing up credit for lending boost borrowing for auto loans, homes and student loans, or are consumers and business wary of borrowing? That is what the Obama administration and the Fed are trying to fix. The TALF program will help get credit flowing but how do you get people to borrow? 

Sen. Bill Bradley on Obama's economic policy:

Obama Says No More Bubbles

Here is the roundtable speech he mentions in this video. It was a good one.

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Fiscal Responsibility Summit Details

The summiters will talk about ways to cut waste out of government programs, such as Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. Obama has invited 130 people to the summit. Those on the left are fretting and those on the right are poking fun of the summit and at least one republican, John McHugh, has declined to show. He's not over the stimulus. Hopefully, the reasonable folks, who've agreed to meet, can get something done. Robert Gibbs said no policy will come out of this. It's just a first step.

WHAT: The White House Fiscal Summit

WHEN: Monday, February 23rd, 2009

12:30 PM - Event Call Time

1:00 PM - Program Begins

4:30 PM - Event Concludes

WHERE: The White House

The State Dining Room

*Specific information on arrival gates will be provided shortly.

FORMAT: Approximately 100 guests will gather at the White House to participate in a summit on fiscal issues. The group will be composed of the President and Vice President, Members of Congress, members of the Cabinet and senior Administration officials, and various other experts in the field. The group of Members will be bipartisan and bicameral.

Session 1: The President and Vice President will each deliver remarks in an opening session in the State Dining Room. Open press.

Session 2: Breakout discussion groups led by members of the Cabinet and senior Administration officials on key fiscal issues. Pooled press.

Session 3: Plenary discussion led by the President regarding results of the five breakout groups. Pooled press.

Breakout sessions.

Health: Orszag, Melody Barnes, Sec. Shinseki

Tax: Geithner, Volcker

Social Security: Romer, Summers

Contracting & Procurement: LaHood, Napolitano, Bill Lynn

Budget: Nabors, Panetta

Obama plans to cut deficit in half.

Politico: President Obama will announce Monday that he plans to cut the nation’s projected annual deficit in half by the end of his first term, a senior administration official said Saturday.

Obama, who will speak Monday to a Fiscal Responsibility Summit at the White House, also will outline steps he is taking to eliminate what his staff calls “accounting gimmicks” used by previous administrations.

“This budget actually is going to assume that there will be a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, flood or manmade disaster in the United States in fiscal year 2010, and each year going forward 10 years,” the official said. “The Bush budget never assumed that.”

Under White House projections, this year’s inherited budget deficit of $1.3 trillion will be cut to $533 billion by fiscal year 2013, the end of the first term.

“So we’ll cut it at least in half,” the official said.

McCain's "Plan" Gets Voted Down in Senate

3.6 million jobs lost since the recession began.

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Meanwhile, progress has been made on the stimulus. Senators say they've cut $100 billion:

A bipartisan group of moderate senators reached a deal Friday to cut about $100 billion from the $937 billion stimulus package, a development that could win enough GOP support to get the 60 votes needed to pass the bill, the group's Democratic leader said.

"The hope is we'll pick up two more Republicans, and if we're able to do that then I think we'll have sufficient numbers to get a vote and pass the alternative," Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., told reporters as he walked into a meeting with other Democrats. MSNBC

Still, some republicans aren't missing what they perceive as an opportunity to take their swats at Obama. Today, Mitt Romney, as if he matters, says Obama's off to a rocky start. Seems to me Obama has done more in two weeks than Bush's two terms. I don't know how these guys think.

Mitt Romney says it’s “been a good year” since he dropped out of the GOP nomination fight, but, he says, “I wish I would have won the nomination, and won the presidency.”

In an interview with TIME magazine, Romney said the man who won the presidency, Barack Obama, “is off to a rocky start.” CNN

Earlier today, Newt Gingrich took a whack at Obama too.
John McCain has been a thorn. But his "plan," that mostly consisted of a year-long payroll tax cut, was voted down by the Senate. McCain seems to forget that he lost for a reason.

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona attempted to replace the president's package with one that cost about half as much and included more tax cuts; his effort failed by a vote of 57-40. McCain said what was happening in the Senate is "not bipartisanship." NPR

McCain says there hasn't been bipartisanship but he started a lame petition to derail the stimulus. That was real productive.
But there are some fruitful republicans:

The newest loss of 600,000 jobs reported today should provide some impetus for passage of a stimulus, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, says -- suggesting that Congress is on track to get a bill to President Barack Obama by next week.

Grassley says the report from the Labor Department showing today that unemployment rose to 7.6 percent last month has put pressure on lawmakers to act quickly.

"A week from now, we're going to be gone," Grassley says on Bloomberg TV's Political Capital with Al Hunt, which airs tonight at 7:30 pm EST. By next week, Grassley says, "we ought to deliver a stimulus package" to Obama, Grassley said. "I just hope it's the right one." Swamp

Obama's new economic advisory board:

The White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board, led by a former Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker, and modeled after the foreign intelligence board created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, includes advisers from business, labor and academia. NYT

Other members:

The group includes Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman of the General Electric Company, and James W. Owens, the chairman of Caterpillar Inc., which announced last week the layoff of 20,000 jobs. William H. Donaldson , a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, will also serve, along with Roger W. Ferguson Jr., the president of T.I.A.A.-CREF, and Martin S. Feldstein, a Harvard University professor, who was the chief economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan.

The group includes two labor officials: Richard L. Trumka of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and Anna Burger of the Service Employees International Union. The board, which will meet for two years, will be guided by Austan D. Goolsbee, an economic adviser to the president. NYT

Volcker to Lead Economic Recovery Advisory Board

Turning the ship around:

CNN: The board will be headed by Paul Volcker, who served as the chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 through 1987, serving under Presidents Carter and Reagan.

Following his tenure there, Volcker worked in the private sector as an investment banker until 1996. Volcker also headed the investigation into the United Nations' oil-for-food program for Iraq.

"The reality is that sometimes policymaking in Washington can become a little bit too ingrown," Obama said at a news conference in Chicago, Illinois.

"The walls of the echo chamber can sometimes keep out fresh voices and new ways of thinking. ... This board will provide that perspective to me and my administration, with an infusion of ideas from across the country and from all sectors of our economy," he said.

Obama senior adviser Austan Goolsbee will be the chief economist on the board. With the board, Obama says he's trying to prevent group think.

Today's press conference video

Obama trying to boost confidence in the markets:

Filling Obama's Cabinet

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama has no time to waste.

Two wars and a deepening financial crisis have raised expectations that he will quickly announce picks for senior government jobs after winning Tuesday's presidential election.

Obama, a Democrat who triumphed over Republican John McCain to become the first black U.S. president, has a transition operation well under way to enable him to unveil selections for positions such as Treasury secretary and secretary of state soon.

Illinois Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel has emerged as a strong contender for the crucial position of White House chief of staff and an announcement could come as early as Wednesday, sources familiar with the matter said.
....
Some analysts believe certain jobs, such as Treasury secretary, could be announced within days and speculation is already rife about several names.

The next Treasury secretary will inherit one of the hottest seats in Washington, faced both with guiding the $700 billion economic bailout package and the regulatory reform needed to prevent a repeat of the current crisis.

In an Obama administration, the short list for Treasury likely includes former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Other names:

Obama has also spoken favorably about investor Warren Buffett, while University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee and former Clinton White House aide Jason Furman are also important economic advisers to the incoming president.

Foreign policy possibilities:

For secretary of state, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry, former diplomat Richard Holbrooke, outgoing Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel and former Georgia Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn are among the names in the mix.

James Steinberg, a former Clinton adviser, is a top contender for national security adviser. Susan Rice, another former Clinton aide, could be considered for that job or another senior post.

Cabinet will include republicans:

With wars under way in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama might consider keeping Robert Gates on as secretary of Defense. He might also consider tapping former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, a close adviser.

Obama's campaign is maintaining the utmost secrecy on planning for the transition, which will occur in the 11 weeks between November 4 and January 20, when he will be sworn in as successor to President George W. Bush.

Obama has said he had "some pretty good ideas" about people he might tap for senior jobs and that he would "absolutely" include Republicans in his Cabinet. read more

Update Nov. 6: more cabinet speculation

Obama's Homeowner and Financial Support Act

Politico: Senator OBAMA's advisers FLY TO FLORIDA to meet with him to finalize his Homeowner and Financial Support Act. The meeting is to include Warren Buffett, Paul O'Neil (the Bush Treasury Secretary!), Bob Rubin, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, Dan Tarullo, Laura Tyson and Paul Volcker.

AP's Terence Hunt says Obama's announcement is expected about 11 a.m. ET: 'Obama ... was to meet with advisers in Coral Gables, Fla., on the campus of the University of Miami and then announce his new proposals. Buffett and O'Neill and perhaps others were to participate by way of a telephone conference call.' Previewing his principles in New Mexico yesterday, Obama said he will 'get serious about helping struggling families to restructure their mortgages on affordable terms, so they can stay in their homes.'

Obama says he's supporting Henry Paulson:

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said today that he supports the efforts by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to ease the economic turmoil on Wall Street.

``The events of the last few days have made it clear that we must take further bold and decisive action to shore up confidence in our financial markets and avoid a deepening economic crisis that could jeopardize the life savings and well-being of millions of Americans,'' Obama said in an e-mailed statement.

Paulson and Bernanke outlined to congressional leaders yesterday a plan to move troubled assets from the balance sheets of American financial companies into a new government institution.

Obama said he is still reviewing the emerging details of the proposal and will be guided by principles, including that any taxpayer-funded support must not reward corporate mismanagement and there be stringent oversight and regulations.

``Eliminating consumer protections and lax oversight contributed to the crisis we are in today, and establishing commonsense rules of the road for our financial system can help restore confidence in our financial system,'' Obama said.

Obama's Economic Meeting July 28 Video

Before the meeting, Obama said the sour economy didn't happen by chance, rather it's the direct result of an irresponsible Wall Street (or as Bush would say, a drunk Wall Street) and Washington.
Here is some of what they discussed.

Here are the participants:
The economic leaders who met with Senator Obama today included:


· Jared Bernstein (Senior Economist, Economic Policy Institute)

· Bill Bradley (Former Senator, D-N.J., U.S. Senate 1979-1997)

· Warren Buffet (Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway) - joined the meeting by phone

· Anna Burger (Chair, Change to Win; International Secretary-Treasurer, Service Employees International Union)

· Jon Corzine (Governor, State of New Jersey)

· William Daley (Chairman of the Midwest, JP Morgan Chase; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Commerce, 1997-2000)

· James Dimon (Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase)

· William Donaldson (27th Chairman of the SEC 2003-2005)

· Indra Nooyi (Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo Inc.)

· Paul O'Neill (Special Advisor, Blackstone Group, Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 2001-2002; Former CEO, Alcoa)

· Federico Peña (Managing Director, Vestar Capital Partners; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 1997-1998; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, 1993-1997; Former Mayor, City of Denver 1983-1991)

· Penny Pritzker (CEO, Classic Residence by Hyatt)

· Robert Reich (University of California, Berkeley; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Labor, 1993-1997)

· Robert Rubin (Chairman and Director of the Executive Committee, Citigroup; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1995-1999)

· Eric Schmidt (Chairman and CEO, Google)

· William Spriggs (Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics, Howard University)

· Lawrence Summers (Harvard University; Managing Director, D.E. Shaw; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1999-2001)

· John Sweeney (President, AFL-CIO)

· Laura Tyson (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley; Former Chairman, National Economic Council, 1995-1996; Former Chairman, President's Council of Economic Advisors, 1993-1995)

· Paul Volcker (Former Chairman, U.S. Federal Reserve 1979-1987)

The McCain camp's Carly Fiorina dismissed this meeting as a cheap photo op.

Obama To Talk Economy with Warren Buffet

Fresh off his overseas trip, Obama is meeting with a bunch of economy brains tomorrow to fine tune his economic strategy. Good luck McCain. 

Warren Buffett, by the way, favors Obama's tax policy. Buffett says rich people don't need to get more breaks on their taxes:

Bloomberg: Democrat Barack Obama said he is convening a meeting on the economy tomorrow that will include former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and billionaire investor Warren Buffett as he pivots to the U.S. economy after a nine-day trip abroad.

``I expect some further fine-tuning of short-term policies based on what's happened over the last several months,'' Obama said in an interview last night aboard his presidential campaign plane returning to Chicago from London.

The meeting in Washington will also include former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Anna Burger, secretary- treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, said David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist.

Rubin advised New York Senator Hillary Clinton during her primary campaign against Obama. Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., plans to phone in to the meeting, Axelrod said.

Obama also said that he wants the convention to be more inclusive. The Obama camp may give tickets to people who sign up a certain number of voters:

He said he's focusing on making the convention ``more open and inclusive,'' and that he's been thinking ``thematically'' about his acceptance speech at Invesco Field on Aug. 28.

Obama said he has been ``spending a lot of time figuring out how can we refresh the format so it's not only an interesting TV show but also it builds on grassroots organization.''

Obama's Top Economic Advisers

Santa Cruz Obama supporters

Reuters:
* AUSTAN GOOLSBEE - The University of Chicago economist is an expert on tax policy and has written extensively on the role of the Internet and technology in the economy. Though he is not on staff with the Obama campaign, he has been a major player in shaping the candidate's economic plans. He sparked controversy in March after he met with Canadian officials. A leaked memo suggested Gooslbee played down Obama's opposition to NAFTA. The Obama campaign said the memo was inaccurate.

* JASON FURMAN - Furman is Obama's top campaign staff aide on economic policy. He was hired shortly after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination on June 3. Furman was an aide in the Clinton White House and is a close associate of former Treasury Secretary Rubin through their work together on the Hamilton Project, a centrist research organization that promotes policies like free trade and fiscal discipline. Furman's reputation as a backer of free trade has concerned some of Obama's union supporters.

* DAN TARULLO - A professor at Georgetown University Law school, Tarullo is an expert on trade and international economics. He was a senior White House aide to Clinton and served as a "sherpa" to meetings of the Group of Eight industrialized economy meetings. In a June 9 CNN interview, Tarullo said Obama supports free trade but "he's not for trade policies that don't protect American workers."

* LAURA TYSON - Tyson the former chairwoman of Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and also served as his director of the National Economic Council. She is now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and has only recently been tapped as a key adviser to Obama.

* PAUL VOLCKER - The former Federal Reserve chairman became a formidable figure in the financial world during the 1980s and is credited with breaking the back of double-digit inflation that marked the early part of the decade. He endorsed Obama in January and attended a March speech the Illinois senator gave in New York in which he called for an overhaul of U.S. financial regulations.

* JARED BERNSTEIN - Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, has written about income inequality and labor markets. His latest book is "Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)." He has called for increased bargaining power for workers.

* ROBERT REICH - Reich was Labor Secretary under Clinton and was seen as a more liberal counterweight to Robert Rubin. He teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.

* PETER HENRY - An expert on emerging markets and the global economy, Henry teaches at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

Four Wall Streeters To Endorse Obama

wsj: Three former chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission will publicly endorse Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's bid for the presidency Wednesday, including one who served under President Bush.

William Donaldson, who was SEC chairman for about 2½ years from early 2003, along with Clinton and Reagan appointees Arthur Levitt and David Ruder, will join former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker in endorsing Sen. Obama, his campaign said. Mr. Volcker endorsed Sen. Obama in January.

In a statement released by the campaign, the four men said they believed Sen. Obama would take a "reasoned approach" to "balanced regulatory reform." As with rival presidential candidates Sens. John McCain and Hillary Clinton, Mr. Obama has advocated revamping financial regulations to head off a repeat of the current credit crisis. Unlike the other two, Sen. Obama has said he would consider raising the capital-gains tax rate from its current 15% -- a move that could have a profound effect on the financial industry.

The endorsements, especially that of Republican appointee Mr. Donaldson, could give a boost to Mr. Obama in the general election this fall. Sen. Obama appears increasingly likely to be confirmed as the Democratic Party's nominee; Sen. McCain is the likely Republican choice.

Mr. Donaldson, a former Wall Street banker, also is a former head of the New York Stock Exchange. In government, Mr. Donaldson's tenure was marked by his push for greater regulation of hedge funds. The SEC eventually passed a hedge-fund-regulation package, in the face of vocal critics. A federal court later overturned the regulation.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Donaldson said he was struck by a speech Sen. Obama gave calling for a revamping of regulation for any business that borrows money from the government. Sen. Obama, he said, saw the "need to take a good hard look at how things are organized" and "just exactly what went wrong in terms of the regulatory oversight that we have."