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.

Fiorina Says Obama Out for Another Photo Op

Carly Fiorina says McCain is quietly learning the economy. Yeah, learning from people like Phil Gramm, now ousted for his large mouth, advising on the "mental recession."

McCain's campaign countered with a conference call in which top economic adviser Carly Fiorina told reporters the Republican has been "quietly talking" with economists and policymakers, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, over the past year.

"I think the American people are getting treated to yet another photo op by Barack Obama, but meanwhile John McCain has been out talking about the economy, understanding the economy, taking advice on the economy for many, many months," Fiorina said.

McCain's camp is just boiling mad that leaders across the world actually liked Obama. Darn it all. And now this. What a smart man to invite cameras. 

Today Obama convened a meeting with big names in economics -- Warren Buffett, Google CEO, even spicing it up with former Bush advisers, to hash out details of his economic strategy:

Present at the meeting were AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, the former head of Wall street investment firm Goldman Sachs. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett joined via speaker phone

Participants said the free-flowing meeting did not reach conclusions but Obama sought out diverse opinions, but there was a consensus the economy was growing worse.

"This was a very serious conversation about serious issues. We were not discussing political tactics," Summers told reporters after the two-hour session concluded.

O'Neill, a former Treasury Secretary under President George W. Bush and a former CEO of Alcoa, said he had not endorsed either candidate but Obama was "inspiring lots of people to become involved." Schmidt described him as "impressively knowledgeable."

The key word is inspiring. Leaders inspire.