Posted Nov. 25 2008 – Flanked in Chicago by financial experts who will shape his economic recovery plan, President-elect Barack Obama showed he is ready to attack the financial crisis now rather than wait until he officially takes office on Jan. 20.

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It is my hope that the new Congress will begin work on an aggressive economic recovery plan when they convene in early January, so that our administration can hit the ground running," Obama said at a news conference in his hometown.

Besides naming New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy F. Geithner as his nominee for Treasury secretary and Lawrence Summers, his former boss at Treasury in the Clinton administration, as his chief economic advisor, Obama listed among his advisers Melody Barnes, who will serve as director of the Domestic Policy Council. Barnes was an aide to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and an executive at the Center for American Progress, a left-of-center think tank involved in planning Obama's transition.

If we do not act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year," Obama warned.

Between Obama's announcement and news that the government was going to bail out troubled Citigroup, the stock market rallied for the second day in a row.