President-elect Barack Obama on Monday named New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner as his treasury secretary and Lawrence Summers as director of the National Economic Council. Geithner and Summers, a former treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, will be at the center of the Obama administration's efforts to address the most serious financial crisis to hit the United States since the 1930s. “The economy is likely to get worse before it gets better,” Obama told a Chicago news conference. “Most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year.” Despite his grim economic forecast, the president-elect expressed confidence that the country could handle the crisis “because we've done it before.” “Vice President-elect [Joseph] Biden and I have assembled an economic team with the vision and expertise to stabilize our economy, create jobs, and get America back on track,” Obama said in a statement released before his news conference. “Even as we face great economic challenges, we know that great opportunity is at hand, if we act swiftly and boldly. That's the mission our economic team will take on.” The president-elect told reporters that his newly named economic advisors offer “sound judgment and fresh thinking” at a time of economic danger. Obama, who takes office on January 20, also named University of California economist Christina Romer as the head of the White House Council of Economic Advisors. The president-elect also named Melody Barnes to serve as director of the Domestic Policy Council and Heather Higginbottom to serve as the council's deputy director.
