Barack Obama will meet with his economic advisory team Friday and hold his first news conference since becoming US president-elect as the country awaited signs of how he might tackle the economic crisis.
The advisory group includes billionaire investor Warren Buffett, ex-Commerce Secretary William Daley and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the Bloomberg reported.
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US president-elect Barack Obama waves to the travelling press corps as he arrives downtown for staff meetings in Chicago, November 6, 2008. [Agencies]
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Obama, who stands to inherit his country's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, faced pressure to announce his picks for key economic jobs, including Treasury secretary, though there were no indications of when he might do so.
On Wall Street, stocks closed sharply lower for a second day. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 443.48 points, or 4.85 percent, after plummeting almost 500 points or about 5 percent on Wednesday – the biggest fall ever on the day after a presidential election.
Though the timing of the Treasury secretary announcement was uncertain, names being considered for the job included Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Summers and Volcker were on the 17-member transition economic advisory board who will meet with Obama on Friday, a statement from the transition office said.
Obama made his first key appointment by naming US Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, a brash veteran of President Bill Clinton's White House known for his take-no-prisoners style, as his chief of staff.
"I announce this appointment first because the chief of staff is central to the ability of a president and administration to accomplish an agenda," Obama said in a statement. "And no one I know is better at getting things done than Rahm Emanuel."
The choice was quickly criticized by Republicans who accused Obama of reneging on his campaign promise that he would bring change to Washington and reach across the aisle to bridge divides between the parties.
"This is an ironic choice for a president-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil, and govern from the center," House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said.
