Caterpillar CEO to join Obama’s economic advisory board
President Obama’s assembling his economic dream team:
The group also will include Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of General Electric, and Jim Owens, the chairman of Caterpillar Inc., which announced last week the layoff of 20,000 jobs. William Donaldson, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, will also serve on the board, along with Roger Ferguson, the president of T.I.A.A.-CREF, and Martin Feldstein, a Harvard University professor, who was the chief economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan.
The group also includes two leading labor officials: Richard Trumka of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and Anna Burger of the Service Employees International Union. The board, which will meet for two years, will be guided by Austan Goolsbee, an economic adviser to the president.
Strikes me you’d have trouble getting this group to agree on whether today is actually Friday, but it does give the impression of something being done.
A reader comments: “Looks like having Ray LaHood in a cabinet position is already paying off Cat with Jim Owens’ appointment to the Board of Economic Advisors.”