The Former CEO`s Economy Team Concentrates on Recovering the Economy

The fact that the White House changed the Economy Team is interpreted as a strategy aiming for the 2004 Presidential Election. Although they won the interim election last month despite of the whirlpool of the economical slump by raising the security as an issue, they realized that it was difficult to win the Presidential Election without economical recovery.

The CEO of the CSX, John Snow and the former CEO of the Goldman Sachs, Stephen Freedman, who were appointed as the Secretary of Finance and the White House Economy Advisor, were all known as practical conservatives. The CEO Snow was selected because of his rich experience of business management and good communication skill. The President George W. Bush was looking for a person who can promote his economy policies to the media. The CEO Snow worked as an Assistant Secretary of Transportation during the President Gerald Ford`s Administration, then entered the CSX in 1977, and became the CEO in 1989 and has worked as the CEO since. He also took the chair of the president of the Business Roundtable, which was the gathering of influential economists, so he has relatively high reputation in the economy circle. It is known that the Vice President Dick Cheney, who worked as the Chief of Staff for the former President Ford, recommended him.

The one that is more welcomed than the CEO Snow in the Wall Street is the former CEO Freedman. That is because people expect the role of the Secretary of Finance during the Bill Clinton Administration, which the former CO-CEO of the Goldman Sachs with Freedman, Robert Rubin played.

He is the one that is compared with the former Secretary Rubin, who was composed, calm, and had an insight into the financial market. He is also evaluated that he has personal charm, utilitarianism, and good concentration. Unlike the Democratic Party inclination the former Secretary Rubin, he is a true Republican; however, he has no ideological propensity since he is working as a board member of the moderate Brookings Research Institute. The Reuter reported that the President Bush selected him to raise the confidence of the investors toward the Government. The White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Bolton, who worked under him at the Goldman Sachs, recommended him.

The two persons first mission seems to be reporting the economy recovery plan, which has been already mad by the White House. The White House, which has been criticized that it had no economical policy beside the tax reduction plan so far, is planning to present the reduction of the tax for stock dividends, remission of the tax for new investments for equipment, and shortening of the federal personal tax rates reduction schedule.

Eun-Taek Hong euntack@donga.com