Obama-nomics

President elect Obama faces an economy on the brink with unemployment now at a 14-year high

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October job losses were worse than feared, with employers slashing payrolls by 240,000, with the unemployment rising to 6.5 percent.

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President-elect Barack Obama who won a sweeping victory in Tuesday's election in part because of his economic promises, now faces an economy ion the brink with the unemployment rate shooting up to a 14 year high.

Obama, whose day began drooping his daughters off at school, headed to meetings with a team of economic advisers in Chicago as new U.S. jobless figures underlined the enormity of the task confronting him to stabilize the economy.

October job losses were worse than feared, with employers slashing payrolls by 240,000, with the unemployment rising to 6.5 percent.

Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute

SOUNDBITE: Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute, saying (English):

"I think there is just no question at this point that he is inheriting a full blown recession and he is going to come into office right the middle it."

Against this backdrop Obama will deliver his first press conference as President elect in Chicago Friday afternoon. He is not expected to make any announcements on cabinet positions.

Speculation about who Obama will name as Treasury Secretary has been rampant. Reportedly on the short list: former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, former Federal Reserve Chief Paul Volcker and the current president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy Geithner.

SOUNDBITE: Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute, saying (English):

"The Treasury Secretary used to be the candidate of Wall Street, even in Democratic Administrations. Given Wall Street's utter failure to police itself after years of assuring policymakers that it would, I hope their voice is deemphasized. Whether that will be the case, who knows? They still have a lot of clout, that is where the money is."

Obama has acknowledged the urgency of revitalizing the economy and he is expected to quickly make key appointments to his economic team.

Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters