It's time to continue our look at the Cabinet in the upcoming Obama administration. Second - Secretary of the Treasury, perhaps the most important appointment President-elect Obama will make, given the current economic circumstances.
There are a number of excellent options - some who served in the Clinton Administration - some outsiders - and even some paradigm breaking choices. For convenience, I've taken the list from a betting site (yes, it is in the order of the oddsmakers favorites). There's also some chatter about keeping Paulson on, temporarily to administer the bailout. So as distasteful as it seems, I kept his name on the list.
I've included one personal progressive favorite, Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman. (While I have yet to seen him on any MSM list, he seems to be a netroots favorite for the job.) My first choice - Tim Geithner.
Poll and brief description of each candidate on the flip. I evaluate each option as best I can. (I had to research the credentials of a few.) I trust others will add more data, including why others would be great or awful.
Warren Buffet - Richest man in America, a new FOB (Friend of Barack). May make a bundle from his investment in Goldman Sachs and subsequent push to buy stocks. Is he interested in our best interests- or is he just another profiteer in our financial system?
Paul Krugman - Nobel Prize Winner, Economics. NYT Columnist. Is he the current incarnation of John Kenneth Galbraith? Perhaps a new progressive hero, as described in how he let loose on Republicans in this diary: Paul Krugman Lets Loose
Tim Geithner - Pres, NY Fed Reserve. Same age as President-elect Obama. Served as a UnderSec to Rubin and Summers. Some blame him for the failure of Lehman Brothers, as he refused to let them repackage themselves as a commercial bank.
Lawrence Summers - Last SecTreas under Clinton. Free Trader. Part of the trio which "saved the world" in '98 when Asian economies experienced the credit crunch we're experiencing today. Problematic tenure as Harvard Pres, including - ah - strange remarks on gender bias in the sciences. And then there's the recent diary: Summers' call for poisoning Developing World
Robert Rubin - SecTreas under Clinton. First person to lead the National Economic Council (the econ version of the National Security Advisor). Former Goldman Sachs CEO. A director of Citigroup. Free Trader. Perhaps the chief architect of Clintonomics
Paul Volcker - Fed Chair under Carter / Reagan. Credited with squashing the stagflation of the late 70s - early 80s. But that led to what was then the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Endorsed Obama at a key time. Oldest option, would likely inspire market confidence.
Chris Dodd - Chair, Senate Banking Committee. ex Presidential candidate. IMO, an excellent progressive.See this Politico article on his chances.
Laura Tyson - Chief, Council of Econ Advisors and National Economic Council under Clinton. U Cal (Berkeley) academic, former chair of the Haas School of Business.
Michael Bloomberg - Mayor, NYC. Forcing himself into a 3rd term as Mayor, in the way Dick Nixon wish he could have done. Socially liberal economic establishment ex-Republican (but still contributes to them) billionaire.
Jon Corzine - NJ Gov, ex Senator from NJ, former Goldman Sachs CEO (similar to Bob Rubin). Reportedly a strong liberal (I don't know). Talked sensibly on the bailout, pushing for a restructuring of troubled mortgages. Meet the Press, Occ 12
Austin Goolsbee - Senior economist, Progressive Policy Institute; one of Obama's econ spokesmen.
Barney Frank - Chair, House Financial Services Committee. Frank was perhaps the chief Democratic architect of the bailout. Commonly thought of as the smartest and funniest person in Congress. Highest ranking gay American in Congress.
Shelia Bair - Even though she's the Bush appointee as Chair of the FDIC, per the Politico, she has proven to be a pro-regulation force in the banking industry, flagging sloppy lending and lax oversight as early as 2002. The same article suggests that she got D praise for the way she handled IndyMac.
Bill Gates - As a Linux geek, I try to stay objective, so I'll just say that he's the former richest man in America, and the ex-co founder of Microsoft. The Gates Foundation has done excellent humanitarian work.
Hank Paulson - Current SecTreas. Normally, I'd say no way to extending the tenure of any Bush appointee. But it's conceivable that it would be necessary to keep him there, temporarily - for market sanity. He's not the worst of the Bush cabinet. But his public speaking skills were blamed in part for making the crash worse. And I think there are several options which would be more comforting to the markets.