You didn’t have to be clairvoyant to see what was coming near the end of the election. With the race ending, Sen. Barack Obama was putting together his economic transition team, which I wrote about here.
Obama’s economic team:
1 – William Daley – Chairman of the Midwest, JP Morgan Chase; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Commerce, 1997-2000
2 – Robert Reich – University of California, Berkeley; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Labor, 1993-1997
3 – Penny Pritzker – CEO, Classic Residence by Hyatt
4 – Roger Ferguson – President and CEO, TIAA-CREF and former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, 1997-2000
5 – Lawrence Summers – Harvard University; Managing Director, D.E. Shaw; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1999-2001
6 – Anne Mulcahy – Chairman and CEO, Xerox
7 – Richard Parsons – Chairman of the Board, Time Warner
8 – Paul Volcker – Former Chairman, U.S. Federal Reserve 1979-1987
9 – Rahm Emanuel – United States Representative (IL-05)
10 – Jennifer Granholm – Governor, State of Michigan
11 – Robert Rubin – Director and Senior Counselor, Citigroup; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1995-1999
12 – David Bonior – Member House of Representatives (Michigan) 1977-2003
13 – 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)
14 – Antonio Villaraigosa – Mayor, City of Los Angeles
15 – William Donaldson – Former Chairman of the SEC, 2003-2005
16 – Eric Schmidt – Chairman and CEO, Google
17 – Roel Campos – Former Commissioner of the SEC, 2002-2007
Did anyone see one name on that list, one, that looked like it belonged? I didn’t either.
So, why are we surprised by who else was brought in?