On November 24, 2008 President-elect Barack Obama announced his plans for his upcoming administration’s economic team at a speech in Chicago. The group faces what are viewed as unprecedented economic challenges for the United States, including economic crisis, paranoid economic markets, rising unemployment, dwindling house values and rising foreclosures, and a fragile banking system at home and abroad. The team, comprised of individuals notable for past and present accomplishments, are the result of the President-elect’s goal of choosing leaders who possess both in-depth experience and bold new ideas and solutions– while sharing the overall ideology for equality in the recovery of Wall Street and Main Street America.

The nominee for U.S. Secretary of the Treasury is Timothy Geithner. Geithner has held senior positions at the Treasury Department, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Geithner has worked closely with current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a history that has some critics worried about the direction he may point the department– Paulson’s approach to date has been criticized as directionless, unfocused, and ineffective. Geithner has roots in Africa and Asia and an academic background in Chinese and Japanese. He earned an M.A. in International Economics and East Asian Studies from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He is expected to bring an international view to the U.S. economic crisis and continue the Paulson quest for increased departmental authority.

Lawrence “Larry” Summers is the choice for director of the National Economic Council. Summers previously held the position of Treasury Secretary under the Clinton Administration and a controversial five-year role as President of Harvard University, where he had once obtained his Pd.D. Summers, widely recognized as a brilliant economist, enrolled at MIT at 16, and at 28 became a Harvard-tenured professor. He has had experience with several major economic crises, and is credited with being the policy architect of the economic expansion of the Clinton administration, one of the country’s longest expansions, which ultimately lead to budget surpluses. Summers’ role in the administration will be of coordinating and guiding the economic policy in the White House. The position of director of the National Economic Council (NEC) is expected to be greatly elevated and notable in the upcoming administration when compared to past ones.

The NEC was established in 1993 to advise the President on U.S. and global economic matters. It is part of the Executive Office of the President. The office function is to coordinate policy making, provide economic advice to the President, ensure consistency with the President’s objectives and policies, and provide a monitoring function. Keith Hennessey is the current director.

Christina Romer will work as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Romer is a macroeconomist and economic historian at UC Berkeley. Her past research has analyzed the causes of the Great Depression and the subsequent economic expansion, and the results of planned tax policies. She was formerly vice president of the American Economic Association, and is a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship recipient. Romer is considered a bipartisan choice for Obama because her published researched has been used to support arguments from both parties.

Melody Barnes, a policy expert will be serving as the Director of the Domestic Policy Council. Barnes is a native of Richmond, Va., and will work very closely with the economic policy team and Health and Human Services team. Barnes worked as the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, where she worked on finding solutions for struggling middle class families.

Heather Higginbottom, former Policy Director for the Obama for America campaign, is nominated as Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council. A Kerry-Edwards Presidential Campaign Policy Director, Higginbottom founded and was Executive Director of the American Security Project, a national security think tank. She was also John Kerry’s Legislative Director. After receiving her master’s degree in Public Policy at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University, she worked as an advocate at the non-profit organization Communities in Schools.

Obama also announced his choice for Office of Management and Budget Director, Peter Orszag. Orszag was the Director of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. He earned his A.B. in economics from Princeton University and his master’s and PhD in economics from the London School of Economics.