The Hindu : Bush shortlists nominees for economic team

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 10, 2002

International

International

Bush shortlists nominees for economic team

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington DEC. 9. The United States President, George W. Bush, is not expected to wait for too long to name his new economic team; and after all kinds of speculation on the subject that included past politicians for the job, the field is narrowing. And one impression is that the new announcements could be made on Monday.

At least two media reports have it that Mr. Bush is close to announcing the Chairman of the railroad shipping giant, CSX, John Snow, as his new Treasury Secretary; and the Chairman of Goldman Sachs, Stephen Friedman, as his new economic advisor. The Washington Post and the New York Times say that the final whetting checks are currently under way before a formal move is made.

Late last week, the White House announced that the Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill, and the President's economic advisor, Lawrence Lindsay, were leaving; but there was little doubt that these men were acting on their own. Mr. O'Neill is said to have hurriedly sent in his short resignation letter to the White House which was soon followed by that of Mr. Lindsay who had been with the President since the time of the political campaigning and one of the architects of the President's $1.35-trillion tax cut plan of last year. But with the economy taking a beating and the markets showing no signs of improvement whatsoever, the argument goes that the White House did not wish to make the same mistake that Bush Senior went through in the early 1990s — placing a perceived premium on politics (read foreign policy) over economics, leading to the loss of the White House to the Democrats in 1992.

With the Congressional elections of November 2002 out of the way, the White House is gearing up for the Presidential elections of 2004, and obviously Mr. Bush will be seeking a second term in office. Mr. Bush's top advisors and strategists had come to the conclusion that the present economic team will have to be dispensed with and the "shake-up'' intended to give the signal that this administration is not just focussed elsewhere.

Several reasons have been given as to why Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Lindsay were removed. At one time, Mr. Bush seemed to be quite impressed with the bluntness of his Treasury Secretary but market and industry captains were not too enthused about the goings-on; and as far as Mr. Lindsay is concerned, one view is that of his assessment that the war against Iraq could cost taxpayers $200 billions that found its way into the media.

That, this figure could be several times higher when the post-conflict phase is taken into account, is a different story.

In the case of Mr. Snow and Mr. Friedman, the point is being made that both are considered pragmatists and comfortable with both Republicans and Democrats.

While conservatives may not be exactly thrilled at Mr. Bush's potential picks, the bottomline to the White House is on the kind of impact the personnel changes are going to bring about. And Democrats have already warned that along with changes of personnel, the administration should start seriously thinking about changing policy.

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