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A People's Guide to the Economic Recovery Advisory Board

We note the Obama Administration named it's Economic Recovery Advisory Board today. While we are hopeful, we are not happy. This board will probably need to be modified before living up to it's potential. Here are it's members:

Chairman - Paul Volcker. Upside - Solid. The best there is. Should have remained Fed Chair. Downside - a little long in the tooth. (This is not age discrimination. Technology has much to do with this recession.)

Staff Director and Chief Economist. Austan Goolsbee - Probably not helpful. Chicago Economist...and they basically sank us into this mess. At least he is at the staff level.

Members - William H. Donaldson, Chairman, SEC (2003-2005). Solid. Called for market reform a long, long time ago. Ran a great firm, DLJ.

Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., President & CEO, TIAA-CREF. Solid. Next to Volcker, the best there is. The guy who saved the economy on September 11, 2001. (See "Bernanke's Fumbles Suggest Deeper Problems," originally posted on the Street Insight section of thestreet.com 5/5/2006 2:42 PM EST.)

Robert Wolf, Chairman & CEO, UBS Group Americas. Negative. (See Goolsbee - basically sank us into this mess.)

David F. Swensen, CIO, Yale University - Probably not helpful. Just some connected Yalie. Should be on staff.

Mark T. Gallogly, Founder & Managing Partner, Centerbridge Partners L.P. - Negative. Helped sink us into this mess...and made a fortune doing so.

Penny Pritzker, Chairman & Founder, Pritzker Realty Group. Neutral.

Jeffrey R. Immelt, CEO, GE - Positive. Has data and input from global sources.

John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Negative. Helped sink us into this mess...and made a fortune doing so.

Jim Owens, Chairman and CEO, Caterpillar Inc. - Positive. Actually makes something.

Monica C. Lozano, Publisher & Chief Executive Officer, La Opinion - Positive.

Charles E. Phillips, Jr., President, Oracle Corporation - Positive. Technology-centric.

Anna Burger, Chair, Change to Win - Unknown, but probably not helpful. Just some connected non profit. Another labor union, non-diverse at the executive level, whose base is made up of people of color. (See AFL-CIO, below.) Should be on staff.

Richard L. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO - Negative. Non diverse organization at the executive level.

Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Dean, Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley - Probably not helpful. Another connected academic. Should be on staff.

Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics, Harvard University - Yikes! Former Chief Economist to Reagan (helped sink us into this mess before we knew we were sunk.) Highly negative and definitely not helpful. Another connected academic. Should be on staff.

All in all,

Solid - 3
Positive - 3
Negative - 5
Probably not helpful - 4
Neutral - 1

We are in trouble and this group probably will not help.

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