If Obama is Master Sun Tzu, who will be his generals?
Posted on November 23rd, 2008
Larry Summers, President Bill Clinton’s last secretary is one of the two favorites to take the same post in the Obama administration.
While Timothy Geithner, 53, chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Chairman, a former chief economist of the World Bank. He became an undergraduate at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology at just 16 and at 28 became the youngest ever academic to be given tenure at Harvard, Obama’s alma mater.
Mr. Geithner would be a fresher face and was one of the few who sounded the alarm about the lack of federal oversight over complex financial arrangements such as credit derivatives covering sub prime mortgage investments.
As a career civil servant, he would fit into Mr. Obama’s promise which is to foster a non-partisan tone in Washington. He was at the center of dealing with the Asian financial market in the 1990s during his work in Clinton administration.
He worked very closely with Henry Paulson, the current Treasury Secretary, in tackling the current global economic crisis which is a role that would help ensure a smooth transfer of stewardship of the economy when the Bush administration ends on January 20th.
The billionaire investor and philanthropist, Mr. Buffet was cited by Mr. Obama on the campaign trail and was even touted by the candidate as a possible Treasury Secretary.
Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve is too old for the Treasury job and has been discouraged by his wife from taking a high-stress role.
Antonio Villaraigosa, the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles is the next possible candidate. Rumors that he is a womanizer, last year his wife filed for divorce after it was revealed he was having an affair with a Spanish-language television reporter who had been covering his mayoralty.
Other prospective candidates are Robert Reich and Robert Rubin-both cabinet secretaries of Clinton, Eric Schmidt -chairman of Google, Xerox chairman Anne Mulcahy and Time Warner chairman Richard Parsons will also take part in the meeting with Mr. Obama.
