Obama Names Gene Sperling Top Economic Adviser

He's done the job before, under Clinton

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 7, 2011 11:15 AM CST

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Obama Names Gene Sperling Top Economic Adviser — In this Dec. 17, 2010, file photo, Gene Sperling arrives at a ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Obama named current Treasury adviser Gene Sperling as his next top economic aide today, taking over for Larry Summers as director of the National Economic Council, the AP reports. It’s familiar territory, the Los Angeles Times adds: Sperling had the same job under Bill Clinton, and he faced a Republican Congress. "He's a public servant who has devoted his life to making this economy work—and making it work, specifically, for middle-class families," Obama said.

Working as counselor to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner since 2009, Sperling was involved in the auto-industry bailouts and the Bush tax cut extensions. And though he's taken some heat over consulting work he did for Goldman Sachs in 2008 and the hefty paycheck—$887,727—that followed, insiders quote the title of Sperling’s book: They call him a “Pro-Growth Progressive,” not a hostage to Wall Street.
(More Gene Sperling stories.)

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