Free Republic

President-elect Barack Obama will push bankers to resume lending to businesses and consumers to help put the ailing economy back on track, but things will get worse before they get better, his top aides said Sunday. "I think he is going to have a strong message for the bankers," said David Axelrod, a top Obama adviser. "We want to see credit flowing again. We don't want them to sit on any money that they get from taxpayers." Obama, a Democrat who is to be sworn in at noon Tuesday as the 44th U.S. president, inherits a $1 trillion-plus deficit and...

Larry Summers, the incoming director of the National Economic Council, predicted Sunday that President-elect Obama would keep the unemployment rate below 10 percent. “I think while we’re going to see substantial job losses, frankly what’s important about the president’s program here is that it is going to contain what would otherwise be just a vicious cycle,” Summers said on CBS’s “Face the Nation”. “People spend less, therefore, others earn less, therefore, they spend less.” Summers said that Obama has received a “terrific response” from Congress on his plan for a massive stimulus to pump money into the economy mainly by...

The Talk Shows Sunday, January 18th, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Robert Gibbs, Obama's choice for press secretary.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Rahm Emanuel, Obama's choice for chief of staff.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Lawrence Summers, Obama's choice for director of the National Economic Council.THIS WEEK (ABC): David Axelrod, senior adviser to President-elect Barack Obama.LATE EDITION (CNN) : President-elect Barack Obama; Axelrod; Dana Perino, press secretary to President George W. Bush; Bush White House counselor Ed Gillespie.

NEW YORK – President-elect Barack Obama will announce the leaders of his economic team Monday, naming Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary and Lawrence Summers to direct the National Economic Council, transition officials said.