Obama needs to staff up his Treasury—and fast
James Forsyth 6:48pm
There’s a rumour doing the rounds in Washington, which I mention in the magazine this week, that the reason Gordon Brown was invited to address a Joint Session of Congress is that the Obama administration isn’t yet ready to have a detailed conversation about the agenda for the G20. This is largely because the Treasury Department is absurdly under-staffed. The only confirmed official there is the Secretary, Tim Geithner. All the deputy and assistant and under secretary jobs are empty. Just to compound this problem, Annette Nazareth, who was expected to be the Deputy Secretary has dropped out and Caroline Atkinson, who as undersecretary of international affairs would have been key to the administration’s position on the G20, has also withdrawn.
Considering the current circumstances, having a Treasury Department which is not running on all cylinders is a real problem. Obama’s reputation for competence is going to be damaged if the White House can’t fix this soon.
From a British political perspective, the withdrawal of Caroline Atkinson is a major blow to Brown. Now the Americans will almost certainly want to stall at the summit on all the issues surrounding changing the international financial architecture meaning that the summit is not likely to be the great triumph Brown so desperately wants it to be.
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TrevorsDen
March 6th, 2009 7:26pm Report this commentHmm ... my take was that he got the speech because he was giving a knighthood to Kennedy. There is a juicy email waiting to be leaked out there.
Otherwise I cannot see the point of Brown going over there at all (unless it was to shut them up and stop all the pestering from Nr 10.
30 minutes exchanging gifts and checking out the DVD wrappers is hardly worth the effort really.
Whatever happens at the G20 it will be 'announced' as a triumph.
Of more importance to us is the state of the real economy, like GM/Vauxhaul/Opel. It is looking increasingly likely that the thick end of £1billion is going to 'have' to be shelled out. Where from? Labour have ceased caring.
Sound money went out of the window ages ago. Billions count for nothing in the mad scramble to cover Browns back.
rmh
March 6th, 2009 11:10pm Report this commentWhose fault?
March 2 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s economic advisers are increasingly concerned about the U.S. Senate’s delay in confirming the nominations of Austan Goolsbee and Cecilia Rouse to the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Without Senate confirmation, the two economists are barred from advising the president as the administration tackles the worst financial crisis in 70 years and tries to advance the spending plan Obama submitted to Congress last week.
hadrian
March 7th, 2009 12:30am Report this commentObama's reputation for competence...er, where has he demonstrated such a virtue?
Dadee
March 7th, 2009 7:43am Report this commentGive the man a break, James. Filling up these posts take time and it might not be a bad idea if Senate fast tracks some of those key confirmation hearings. But you can't blame Obama for not trying...so cut the man some slack.
Ahead of the London summit, the WSJ already reports that Ted Truman, a Fed and Treasury veteran is leading the preparations for the US.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/03/06/will-truman-policies-prevail-at-treasury/
seb
March 7th, 2009 9:24am Report this commentTrevorsDen
How refreshing to spot a reference to a concept entirely alien to the minds [?] of our political superiors. I of course refer to the binomial known as the 'real economy'. Since the onset of this, the second great depression, I've grown so used to hearing of the global economy that I'd almost forgotten what the alternative, the one that does not involve bingeing on debt, money shuffling and casino lunacy, was called.
RW
March 7th, 2009 10:43am Report this commentSurely this makes it increasingly likely that Obama won't be at the G20 in person, having a heap of other things to deal with. He's still got time to be "otherwise engaged".
Pity poor Gordon, not getting those vital photos which, against all the odds, were seemingly going to guarantee his triumphant victory at the next GE.
Verity
March 7th, 2009 2:38pm Report this commentClanger. Obama doesn't have a Treasury. The Government of the United States does. You wouldn't refer to Alastair Darling's Exchequer, would you (I hope)?
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