Change.Gov : Barack Obama First Internet Address to US.

President-elect Barack Obama first ever weekly internet-radio address to the American people.

US President-elect Barack Obama has outlined his plans for America in an unprecedented address using YouTube, outside of the traditional use of the radio waves for a weekly Democratic party address to the nation.

In the video uploaded to YouTube late on Friday the 22nd of November, Obama outlined his plans for the creation of 2.5 million jobs by January 2011, exactly two years after he is expected to take office as President.

We'll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jump start job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy," Obama said in his weekly Internet/radio address.

His announcement came two days after government data showed that new jobless claims had surged to a 16-year high, in a new sign that the world's largest economy appeared to be sliding into a deep recession, press reported.

Obama is also expected to officially announce his entire cabinet within the week. Obama is set to introduce Senator Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State, and as we predicted Timothy Geithner as Secretary of Treasury.

Obama has also launched a website set to keep Americans up to speed with the President-elects administration, Change.gov.

Full 'weekly' Barack Obama Internet and radio address:

As We Predicted: Timothy Geithner Will Be Obama Treasury Secretary

Current New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner is set to be named US Treasury Secretary Monday, giving markets a much needed boost of confidence.

As we predicted earlier this month, Timothy Geithner will almost certainly become the all important Treasury Secretary in a Obama Whitehouse this January, reports say.

Despite the media focusing much of its attention on other likely candidates, it seemed very likely indeed that Tim Geithner was going to be selected for Treasury given his inside knowledge and experience with managing financial and economic crisis, and his Obama like affinity with international issues, pragmatism, age, family and general world view.

NBC news reported sources Friday afternoon New York Time that Timothy Geithner (pronounced GITE-ner) would be tapped by Obama for the position. Stocks on the NYSE soured with the news and gave a boost of confidence to an otherwise depressed financial market.

Major indices were up more than 6 percent, Reuters-Thompson reported. The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 8,000.

Via Reuters

NBC News said Obama was expected to announce Geithner and other members of his economic team on Monday to try to calm U.S. financial markets that have sunk like a stone all week before Friday's surge.

"A fantastic choice to help lead the financial markets out of the wilderness," said Chris Rupkey, economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York. He called Geithner a "crisis manager par excellence" who would hit the ground running.

If confirmed by the Senate, Geithner would be at the helm of efforts to stem the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Capitalism Crumbling? World Stock Market at Nearly 6 Year Low

An indexation of global stock markets shows that the value of companies around the world is at the lowest point since the early part of the decade.

Central banks around the world are expected to implement another wave of rate cuts, but the economic tools of manipulation are running thin and far as the world looks like it will slump into a deep recession if things stay the way they are.

Every industry from Asian high technology makers to banks are beginning to fell the pinch as shares continue to take a pounding across the globe.

More from Reuters:

Like dominoes, Asian markets fell a day after U.S. stocks hit their lowest in more than five years. The MSCI All-Country World Index fell 1.2 percent as of 0330 GMT (10:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday), having hit its lowest level since May 2003.
Japan's Nikkei average dropped 5 percent, below the key technical level of 8,000 points for the first time in three weeks.
South Korean and Hong Kong shares tumbled more than 5 percent, while markets in Sydney, Singapore and Taiwan fell more than 3 percent each.
More broadly, the Asia-Pacific ex-Japan MSCI index was down nearly 5 percent.
Expectations for a sharp slowdown sent oil prices down for a fifth consecutive session, and down 83 cents to $52.79.

Timothy Geithner: Treasury Secretary of Obama Administation?

Picture: Timothy Geithner

Could this man be one of the most important men in the world on January 20, 2009?

47-year-old Timothy Geithner is the hot favourite to be named by US President elect Barack Obama as United States Treasury Secretary, prominent economists believe.

As the US economy dramatically falters and the New York stock exchange continues to plunge, the pragmatic and youthful looking Geithner (pronounced GITE-ner) would likely bring confidence to Wall Street and global financial markets if named by Obama either Friday afternoon US time or later in the month.

A Reuters-Thompson survey of prominent economist found over half thought that Tim Geithner would be chosen for the important role of navigating the US economy out of the expected recession, with 26 of 48 respondents saying Geithner would be chosen for the job.

Timothy Geithner is the current president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and has been on the front lines of the Global Credit crisis and Wall Street meltdown. Despite his relative youth compared to many in the business, Geithner is a seasoned crisis manager, being at the centre of solving, "almost every major financial blowup of the past decade".

“He has a calm way in the face of whatever he’s facing and an irreverent sense of humor,” former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said of Geithner a few years ago.

Like Obama, Geithner has a reputation for having a cool temperament and seeks consensus when approaching complex problems to solutions. Tim Geithner has also been a voice of alarm in recent years over the possibility of a crisis, that has unfolded in the last few months.

In the last few years Geithner has also closely studied the complex world of credit derivatives (considered financial weapons of mass destruction by Warren Buffett) in an attempt to understand the risks to the wider economy. His skills in this area, along with his history as a financial regulator, also make him the perfect fit to map out a new strategy to build a new regulatory framework in the aftermath of the 2008 economic and credit crisis.

"We’ve seen substantial change in the financial system", Geithner warned almost two years ago.

"With the emergence of a very large universe of leveraged private funds, rapid growth in exposures to more complicated and less liquid financial instruments, all during a period of very low volatility,” said Mr. Geithner in an interview to the New York Times interview around the same time. “This means we know less about market dynamics in conditions of stress.”

Like the Barack Obama"internationalist" brand gained from his four years at school in Indonesia and his Kenyan father, Timothy Geithener also has a similar life story and world view.

As Obama was born in the US and moved overseas at a young age, so to did Geithner. He grew up in Thailand and India, he graduated from the International School in Bangkok, returned to the US and gained a B.A. in government and Asian studies in 1983.

He later achieved an M.A. in International Economics and East Asian Studies, lived across the world including Japan and East Africa and can speak Japanese and Chinese.

He's worked for the IMF and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 2001.

He is only a few days younger than Barack Obama, is a registered Democrat and has two young children.