U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Monday nominated Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary and Lawrence Summers as director of the National Economic Council. Geithner, the New York Federal Reserve Bank president, and former Treasury Secretary Summers will be at the center of the Obama administration's efforts to fight the worst financial crisis to hit the United States since the Great Depression.
In a statement Obama also named University of California at Berkeley economist Christina Romer as the head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Obama said that he wanted to see a massive stimulus package enacted "right away" as it was desperately needed to jolt the economy back into shape. Asked at a press conference after formally unveiling his economic team, when he hoped to see a new stimulus package passed, Obama replied: "I want to see it enacted right away.
"It is going to be of a size and scope that is necessary to get this economy back on track. I don't want to get into numbers now.
"I think the most important thing to recognize is that we have a consensus, which is rare, between conservative economists and liberal economists, that we need a big stimulus package that will jolt the economy back into shape."
There was no mention Monday of Obama's pick for commerce secretary, with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson reportedly in line for the job of promoting domestic U.S. industry.