“Both campaigns have moved to bring in more experienced hands,” says John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, N.C. “You need to call in people who have … some gray on their temples.”
The roster of advisers for Obama includes former Treasury secretaries from the Clinton administration: Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.
In the final presidential debate earlier this month, the Illinois senator also emphasized his ties with a billionaire investment whiz from Nebraska and the man who jacked up Federal Reserve interest rates two decades ago to end 1970s inflation. “Let me tell you who I associate with,” Obama said. “On economic policy, I associate with Warren Buffett and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker.”
McCain has tapped into the wisdom of people such as John Thain, the head of Merrill Lynch, and John Taylor, a Stanford University economist who developed the influential “Taylor rule” for setting central-bank interest rates at an appropriate level. In the early years of Mr. Bush’s presidency, he also served as undersecretary of Treasury for international affairs.
