Bailout

Live Blogging President-Elect Obama?s Economic Agenda (Press Conference and Sxity Minutes)

By Admin

Speaking at first post-election press conference on November 7th:

Stimulus Spending Plan

• [Need] rescue plan for middle class that invests in immediate efforts to recreate jobs… a fiscal stimulus plan that will jump start economic growth is long overdue… we should get it done.
• We are going to need to see a stimulus package passed either before after the Inauguration.
• I want to see a stimulus package sooner rather than late.  If it does not get done during the lame duck session, it will be the first thing I get done.

Speaking to 60 Minutes, broadcast November 17th:

• “We will have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving gain.  We shouldn’t worry about the deficit next year or even the year after…  Short term, the most important thing is we avoid a deepening recession.”
• “Willingness to try things and experiment to get people working again… thinking about ordinary Americans and not just the wealthy and powerful.”
• Basic principal that government has role to play in kick-stating economy that has ground to a halt… That this is a free market system is a principle we have to hold to… don’t want to get bottled up in ideology… my interest is in finding something that works whether it comes from FDR or Ronald Reagan.

TARP

• “Hank [Paulson] would probably be the first one to acknowledge that not everything has worked the way he hoped it wold work.”
• “Set up negotiation between banks and borrowers so that people can stay in their homes.”
• “If we don’t have a clear, focused program for homeowners by the time I take office, we will after I take office.”

Auto Industry

• “For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster…  My belief we should provide assistance… can’t be blank check… conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all the stakeholders coming together with a plan “what does a sustainable auto industry look like”…  a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to  bridge loan to nowhere.”
• “[Bankruptcy-] under normal circumstances, that might [work], in this situation, you can see the spigot completely cutoff… would not permit GM to get back on its feet…. [in these] extraordinary circumstances the usual options may not be available.

Financial Industry Re-regulation

• “Top priority…  Deregulation process wasn’t just one party.. Not heavy handed regulation that crush the entrepreneurial spirit and risk taking of American capitalism… to restore sense of balance.”

Transition Economic Advisory Board

• David Bonior (Member House of Representatives 1977-2003)
• Warren Buffett (Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway)-will participate via speakerphone
  Roel Campos (former SEC Commissioner)
• William Daley (Chairman of the Midwest, JP Morgan Chase; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Commerce, 1997-2000)
• William Donaldson (Former Chairman of the SEC 2003-2005)
• Roger Ferguson (President and CEO, TIAA-CREF and former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve)
• Jennifer Granholm (Governor, State of Michigan)
• Anne Mulcahy (Chairman and CEO, Xerox)
• Richard Parsons (Chairman of the Board, Time Warner)
• Penny Pritzker (CEO, Classic Residence by Hyatt)
• Robert Reich (University of California, Berkeley; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Labor, 1993-1997)
• Robert Rubin (Chairman and Director of the Executive Committee, Citigroup; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1995-1999)
• Eric Schmidt (Chairman and CEO, Google)
• Lawrence Summers (Harvard University; Managing Director, D.E. Shaw; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1999-2001)
• Laura Tyson (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley; Former Chairman, National Economic Council, 1995-1996; Former Chairman, President’s Council of Economic Advisors, 1993-1995)
• Antonio Villaraigosa (Mayor, City of Los Angeles)
• Paul Volcker (Former Chairman, U.S. Federal Reserve 1979-1987)

Full post as published by Bailout Report on November 17, 2008 (boomark / email).