Obama: Worst still to come
(China Daily) Updated: 2008-11-26 07:44
Barack Obama, and Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner leave a news conference in Chicago on Monday after the US president-elect introduced his economic team to the press. AP
WASHINGTON: Barack Obama named his economic brain-trust on Monday as he conceded that millions more American workers could lose their jobs next year and played down expectations that his administration could engineer a quick turnaround of the economy.
Hoping to hit the ground running when he takes office on Jan 20, the president-elect urged the new Congress to pass quickly what was expected to be a massive economic stimulus package. He pledged help for the troubled US auto industry and praised the Bush administration's moves to bail out the financial industry, too.
Obama named New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner the next treasury secretary on Monday, saying the US faces a "crisis of historic proportions" and played down expectations that his administration could put the brakes on recession quickly.
He appointed Lawrence Summers as director of his National Economic Council. Summers was the treasury secretary under former president Bill Clinton and is a former president of Harvard University.
The US market on Monday and Asian markets yesterday reacted positively to his appointments and the bailout of Citigroup. The Dow rose 4.2 percent and S&P 4.9 percent on the news. Asian markets regained some confidence yesterday after the strong Monday night show on Wall Street.
The Nikkei jumped 5.2 percent in Japan and the Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 3.4 percent.
Geithner and Summers are seen as reassuring economic and political voices for the incoming Obama administration.
"This will not be easy. There are no shortcuts or quick fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and the economy is likely to get worse before it gets better," Obama said. "Full recovery will not happen immediately."
"Most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year," he said.
Obama ordered his team to work on a program to create or save 2.5 million jobs by the end of 2010. But he did not say how large a stimulus package he wanted from the Congress. It would be "costly" is all he said, but Democratic lawmakers speculated it could reached $700 billion over two years.
At his Monday news conference, Obama criticized the top three US automakers, saying he was surprised that they did not have a precise plan for their future before asking the Congress last week to approve a $25-billion in emergency loans. But, he said, once he sees a plan, he could " be able to shape a rescue".
Obama intends to name Peter Orszag as his budget director, Democratic officials said on Monday. Orszag, 39, is serving a four-year term as head of the Congressional Budget Office.
The president-elect said the economic and financial crisis confronting the US and the world demanded the "sound judgment and fresh thinking" his new team would bring to bear on problems as great as any since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
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