Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a former Treasury official under Clinton, is one of the most talked-about candidates for Obama's shortlist. He has played an instrumental role in the credit crisis, particularly when he engineered the sale of Bear Stearns to J.P. Morgan, making him a likely favorite of Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. He has also been known to advise Obama. At 47, Geithner might be considered a little young for the job. But then again, he's the same age as his would-be boss.
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Summers, Clinton's last treasury secretary, is a key architect of Obama's economic plan and an expected name on his shortlist. Democrats consider Summers a brilliant economist, and by some accounts he is positioning himself for the job. But he has a history of stirring up trouble; in 2006, he was forced to step down as Harvard's president after he suggested that men could be innately better suited to math and sciences than women.
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Altman is an investment banker who has served in top positions at Lehman Brothers, the Blackstone Group, and the Treasury under Clinton. He is a likely candidate for Obama's shortlist, but would have to beat a number of hurdles to make it past the confirmation process. Altman advised Hillary Clinton, a choice that will not ingratiate him with Obama. He has been a supporter of deregulation, a position not currently in vogue. And he resigned as deputy treasury secretary amid questions about his role in the Whitewater scandal, although he was later cleared of wrongdoing.
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Tyson is an key adviser for Obama who chaired both the Council of Economic Advisers and the White House National Economic Council under Clinton. But her background is largely in academics, not Wall Street, raising doubts about whether she is up the task. She has served as dean of the London Business School and the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
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As a former Clinton treasury secretary, former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, and now a top official at Citigroup, Rubin knows his way around the block. He is a core advisor for Obama, who has indicated that he will rely on Rubin to help choose the next treasury secretary. But while the 70-year-old Rubin appears to have significant support among economists, it's not clear that Obama will strongly consider him for the position.
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Rattner was a reporter for the New York Times before he entered investment banking and went on to become the well-respected founder of the Quadrangle Group. He was close with Hillary Clinton, but now advises Obama.
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A rumor has been spreading that Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, is one of Obama's top choices. He certainly appears well-versed in political rhetoric, judging by a speech at Harvard this month in which he scolded slow-acting elected officials and Wall Street fat cats. He hasn't received much mention among political insiders, though, perhaps partly because his bank was one of the institutions forced to sell a stake to the government under Paulson's latest plan.
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Volcker is another key Obama adviser. But he's an old-timer, having served as Fed Chairman under Presidents Carter and Reagan. He is now 81 years old.
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It's been a long road for the New Jersey Governor, who was ousted a decade ago from Goldman Sachs by Henry Paulson, his then-Co-CEO. But it's unlikely he will end up back in Paulson's house anytime soon. While Corzine has become an outspoken defender of Obama's economic proposals, he endorsed Hillary in the primary. And with a conflict-of-interest scandal involving a former girlfriend on his back, he could have trouble sneaking through the confirmation process.
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Bloomberg, the highly lauded New York Mayor who has been shepherding the financial capital of the world through the credit crisis, might not make for a bad choice. Before founding his self-named financial news company, he served as a general partner at the Salomon Brothers investment bank. But he just won a fight to extend term limits in New York so he can remain mayor, casting doubt on his enthusiasm for the Treasury post.
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