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President-elect Barack Obama pledged on Wednesday
to have an economic plan ready for action on the nation's financial
crisis on his first day in office. "Help is on the way," he
declared.

      He also said his Cabinet would "combine experience with fresh
thinking" and pushed back against criticism that he was recycling
former Clinton administration officials as he builds his new
economic team.


      In his third news conference on the economy in as many days,
Obama announced he had chosen former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul
Volcker to head a new White House panel to help create jobs and
bring stability to the ailing financial system.


      Volcker, 81, will head the President's Economic Recovery
Advisory Board. The board's top staff official will be Austan
Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist.


      Volcker is a legendary central banker who raised interest rates
and restricted the money supply to tame raging inflation in the
1980s. It was a painful prescription that helped send the economy
into one of the nation's worst recessions.


      "He pulls no punches," Obama said of Volcker. "He seems to be fairly opinionated."


      Fifty-five days before his inauguration, Obama defended his
selection of former Clinton officials to help run his
administration.


      "The American people would be troubled if I selected a treasury
secretary or a chairman of the National Economic Council at one of
the most critical economic times in our history, who had no
experience in government whatsoever," Obama said.


      "What we are going to do is combine experience with fresh
thinking," he said. "But understand where the vision for change
comes from. First and foremost, it comes from me. That's my job, is
to provide a vision in terms of where we are going and to make sure
then that my team is implementing."


      As he spoke, there was unrelenting bad news on the economy's
current state.


      The government reported that jobless claims remained at
recessionary levels, consumers had cut back on their spending by
the largest amount since the 2001 terrorist attacks, orders to U.S.
factories had plunged anew and home sales had fallen to the lowest
level in nearly 18 years.


      Obama said he will announce the remaining members of his new
economic panel in the coming weeks. He already has named
Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag as his candidate
to run the White House Office of Management and Budget and New York
Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner as his treasury secretary.


      Geithner was a Treasury Department official during the Clinton
administration, and Lawrence Summers, who will head Obama's
National Economic Council, was Clinton's treasury secretary. Other
Clinton administration names include Eric Holder, who will be
Obama's attorney general, and Rahm Emanuel, the president-elect's
chief of staff.


      Obama said he wants the new economic panel to provide outside
voices for his administration.


      "The walls of the echo chamber can sometimes keep out fresh
voices and new ways of thinking," Obama said. "You start engaging
in group-think."


      His economic team largely complete, Obama is expected to
introduce national security officials next week, including Hillary
Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state. He is expected to
announce he has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remain at
the Pentagon for a year. James Jones, a former Marine Corps
commandant and NATO commander, is Obama's pick to be national
security adviser.


      Obama said his new economic panel will include people from
business, labor and academia, "who will bring to bear their wisdom
and expertise on the formulation, implementation and evaluation of
my administration's economic recovery plan."


      "I hope that everybody understands that we are going to be able
to get through these difficult times, but we're just going to have
to make some good choices," Obama said. "I was elected with the
charge of getting this economy back in shape but also making sure
that it's working on behalf of middle-class families."
      
      

Gallery

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Consumer confidence rises in November, but longer term outlook still gloomy

Obama names budget director, promotes restraint

President-elect Barack Obama pledged on Wednesday
to have an economic plan ready for action on the nation's financial
crisis on his first day in office. "Help is on the way," he
declared.


Obama adds econ advisers, says 'help on the way'

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