Obama unveils economic team

United States President-elect Barack Obama on Monday officially unveiled the economic team that will assist him in tackling what he termed 'an economic crisis of historic proportions'.

Obama has named New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner as US Treasury Secretary and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as chief of the National Economic Council.

Re-iterating a campaign theme, Obama said he chose advisers who share his fundamental belief that "we cannot have a thriving Wall Street without a thriving Main Street."

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The announcement comes the same day the US government unfurled a massive rescue package for struggling megabank Citigroup. President George W Bush told mediapersons that he had discussed the crucial step with Obama before it was announced.

Both men, particularly Geithner, are considered aggressive in using government tools to handle economic problems.

At the centre of the Wall Street meltdown earlier this year, Geithner helped oversee the acquisition of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan Chase, the bailout of AIG and the government's decision to effectively allow the collapse of US banking institution Lehman Brothers.

He was appointed the New York Federal Reserve president in November 2003.

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Summers, meanwhile served as US Secretary of the Treasury, the third of the three to hold the position under former President Bill Clinton. He was also the chief economist of the World Bank between 1991 and 1993.

Other noteworthy appointments include University of California-Berkeley Economics professor Christina Romer, who will be the chairperson of the President's Council of Economic Advisers.