Adviser choice to be eyed closely

Associated Press

HONOLULU

Change is coming soon to the White House economic team, with President Barack Obama set to announce a new top adviser who will have broad influence over the administration’s efforts to jumpstart the struggling economy.

Obama is expected to announce a replacement for departing National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers early in the new year. The president’s choice is being watched closely for signs of where he wants to take his economic agenda in the second half of his term and how he looks to bring down the almost double-digit unemployment rate.

Will he tap the business world with a figure such as Roger Altman, an investment banker and Clinton administration alumnus who might carry too much baggage from his association with Wall Street? Will he turn to academia instead, calling on a scholar such Yale President Richard Levin? Or will he go with deeply experienced insiders such as deficit hawk Gene Sperling at the Treasury Department or Jason Furman, the council’s deputy director?

With the unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, the private sector struggling to maintain growth and the public ranking the economy as the top concern, Obama’s handling of the issue over the coming months is certain to play a central role in his expected re-election bid.