President-elect Barack Obama took another step to stabilize the ailing economy on Wednesday, announcing the formation of a new board to help formulate and assess the administration's economic recovery plan. Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, will serve as chairman of the new advisory panel.
At a midmorning news conference in Chicago, Obama announced that he would form the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a team of individuals from business, labor, academia and other sectors who will provide analysis and ideas for programs and policies that are helping to stabilize the economy.
Obama said the board would be modeled after the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board created by President Eisenhower and would provide a candid assessment of what is working and what isn't in communities across the country.
"The reality is that sometimes policymaking in Washington can become too insular," Obama said. "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 the board will report to him, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, and the administration's economic team as they try to "jump-start economic growth, create jobs, raise wages, address our housing crisis and stabilize our financial markets."
The 81-year-old Volcker was Fed chairman from 1979 to 1987, under Presidents Carter and Reagan.
Obama also said economist and University of Chicago professor Austan Goolsbee will serve as the new board's staff director and chief economist. Goolsbee, who has a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has published numerous articles on tax policy and industrial organization.
Obama said he also plans to nominate Goolsbee to serve as one of the three members of his Council of Economic Advisers.
The other members of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board will be announced in the next few weeks. "I look forward to their contributions to our urgent work to rebuild our economy and restore prosperity across America," Obama said.
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