New-fangled position, Old-boy appointee
26 November 2008 | 
Author: doctor |
Sheldon Alberts, Canwest News Service - November 26, 2008
WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday named former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to lead a new financial panel to advise him on ways to help steer the United States out of a recession upon taking office.
Volcker, who chaired the Fed during the Carter and Reagan administrations, will head the newly created President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a outside group of experts who will provide "fresh perspective" on Obama's efforts to jumpstart the ailing U.S. economy. "The reality is that sometimes policy-making in Washington can become a little bit too ingrown, a little too insular," Obama told reporters at a news conference in Chicago, his third in as many days. "You start to engage in group think." The incoming president also named University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee to serve as the board's staff director and join his Council of Economic Advisers. Goolsbee, a senior economic adviser to Obama during the presidential campaign, was at the centre of last March's 'Naftagate' imbroglio that made him a near-household name in Canadian political circles. The controversy began after the leak of a Canadian diplomatic memo in which Canada's Chicago consulate recounted a meeting with Goolsbee in which he purportedly said Ottawa should discount some of Obama's criticisms about the North American Free Trade Agreement. "The walls of the echo chamber can sometimes keep out fresh voices and new ways of thinking - and those who serve in Washington don't always have a ground-level sense of which programs and policies are working for people, and which aren't," Obama said, explaining his reason for establishing the new panel. "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 - input that will be informed by members' first-hand observations of how our efforts are impacting the daily lives of our families." Obama also answered early criticisms about the number of Clinton administration veterans and longtime Washington insiders who have been nominated - or are rumoured to be nominated - for key positions within his administration. The reported picks include former first lady Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, former Clinton administration energy secretary Bill Richardson as Obama's commerce secretary, former Senate minority leader Tom Daschle as health secretary and former Clinton Justice Department attorney Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary. Obama has confirmed only one major cabinet selection, New York Federal Reserve president Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary. But he became defensive when asked whether his new team represents the "change" he promised during the election campaign, saying it would be surprising if he did not include experienced individuals from the last Democratic presidency. "What we are going to do is combine experience with fresh thinking," Obama said. "The vision for change ... comes from me. That's my job." He made no comment about continuing reports Wednesday that Defence Secretary Robert Gates would remain in his Pentagon job for at least a year after Obama takes office. (original link)
THE DOCTOR: As predicted, Obama is going to do NOTHING to help the American people on the financial front. Mr Volcker is a former chairman of the Federal Reserve under Carter and Regan, as well as a Director of the United Nations Associated of the United States. He has longtime association with the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, the World Bank and is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. Obama keeps using words and phrases like "fresh thinking" and "change", but how is he going to do this by using the same people who have been in power for thirty years? They still work the same way everyone before them has in their position for the last century. This "change" could be the "change" that has been on the horizon for the last couple of decades, just waiting for the right person to enact them. The change is going to be that everyone can see it and will be affected by it, instead of just those who keep themselves informed.
