GE Chief Immelt to Succeed Volcker at Economic Council
The New York Times reports:
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — President Obama, sending another strong signal that he intends to make his White House more business-friendly, traveled to this industrial city on Friday to appoint a prominent corporate executive as his chief outside economic adviser, and to spotlight his efforts on job creation, in advance of next week’s State of the Union address.
Here in the birthplace of General Electric, where the company’s historic brick edifice and iconic neon-script logo loom over downtown, Mr. Obama turned to Jeffrey R. Immelt, the company’s chairman and chief executive, to run his outside panel of economic advisers. Mr. Immelt succeeds Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, who is stepping down.
The selection of Mr. Immelt, who was by Mr. Obama’s side during his trip to India last year and again this week during the visit of President Hu Jintao of China, is the latest in a string of pro-business steps the president has taken. He has installed William Daley, a former JPMorgan Chase executive, as his chief of staff; has scheduled a major speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce next month; and ordered federal agencies this week to review regulations with an eye toward eliminating some.
Taken together, the moves amount to a carefully choreographed shift in strategy for the White House, both substantively and on the public relations front, as Mr. Obama makes the case to the nation that the United States has moved past economic crisis mode and is entering ‘’a new phase of our recovery” that demands an emphasis on job creation.
