Tonight's "Loose Ends" will review the development of the Obama cabinet and discuss some upcoming analysis which I plan to feature here over the coming days and weeks.
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The Obama administration is beginning to take shape. After the early pick of Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) as Chief of Staff, he has been piecing together the rest of his White House Staff. See press releases here, here, here, here, and here. They've been busy.
The transition team has also been assembling the cabinet. Some of these appointments are official, some are speculation.
The highest profile pick is Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as Secretary of State. I don't have a lot to say about this one except that Hillary is certainly a bit more hawkish than what most anti-war Obama supporters would like to have. While, I'm not an Obama supporter, I'd agree. I'm not terribly surprised as Obama is more hawkish himself than he was painted in the primaries.
I like the pick of Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico, as Secretary of Commerce. Richardson formerly served as Secretary of Energy in the Clinton administration. Bill's endorsement of Obama in the primaries was reported to cause a major rift amongst the Clinton camp. We'll see if there are any downstream ramifications. I would have liked to see Richardson get the State Department, but the Commerce Department should get a decent amount of power due to the economic crisis.
Governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, neighbor to Richardson, is headed for the Department of Homeland Security. As the Governor of a border state, I think it sends a message that this department will focus more on immigration reform than the Bush administration. She has an extensive law enforcement background as a former U.S. attorney and state attorney general.
Another early supporter of Obama, is former South Dakota Senator and Majority Leader, Tom Daschle. His loyalty is being rewarded with an appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services. This department will also have a bit more power in this administration as health care will be a top priority.
New York FED president, Timothy Geithner, will be the Secretary of the Treasury. Again, this will be a very high profile position given the current financial and economic crisis. Geithner's appointment is being credited with a late afternoon rally in the financial markets. I don't doubt that this could be a major factor in the surge, but I'm skeptical that it will hold the markets. Geithner is a member for the powerful Trilateral Commission. I'm not a big conspiracy theorist; I call them as I see them. These guys are powerful.
Finally, it looks like Eric Holder, former Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration, is headed for a post as Attorney General. This pick is somewhat at the centerpiece of the criticism Obama is receiving as former the sequel to the Clinton administration. While this criticism is fair, who are the powerful, qualified Democrats that didn't serve in the Clinton administration?
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The last piece I want to touch on is a teaser of some future work that I plan on featuring here. As I mentioned earlier this week, I will be looking at the success measures of the EESA/TARP plan as implemented by Paulson. Additionally, I will be performing a broader macroeconomic analysis of the economy - this will feature my predictions for the market lows, the impact on the bond markets (especially U.S. Treasuries), the future of the U.S. Dollar, and what this all means for taxes, actions by the FED, etc. Not sure when I'll get to that one, but it should be fun.
Finally, I've begun my in-depth analysis on the congressional voting record. I am currently gathering data and beginning analysis on all votes in the House in 2007. I'll be putting together some voting statistics and ultimately classifying each member of Congress into different voting groups. I plan on extending this to 2008, the Senate, and into the future. I'm excited about this one too.
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