President-elect Barack Obama, center, introduces his economic team, from left, Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary; Christina Romer as Council of Economic Advisers chair; Lawrence Summers as National Economic Council head; and Melody Barnes as Domestic Policy Council director.

President-elect Barack Obama got high marks from the White House to Wall Street on Monday for choosing crafty economic policymakers to lead the nation through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. "Brilliant," "outstanding" and "exceptionally talented" were some of the words used to describe his two top choices — Timothy Geithner, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, for Treasury secretary, and former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers for National Economic Council director — and that came from Republicans. WHO'S WHO: A look at Obama's economic team "It's hard for me to imagine a better team than this one," said Pete Peterson, co-founder of the Blackstone Group, who chaired the search committee that chose Geithner for the New York Fed. Peterson, a veteran of the Nixon administration, said Geithner, 47, "has everything that anyone could ask for" in a Treasury chief. Of Summers, 53, he said, "If there's a more brilliant economist in the United States, I wouldn't know who that is." Both Geithner and Summers were lauded by Republicans and Democrats alike as pragmatists who understand how to use the levers of government in the financial sector — something that both sides agree has become increasingly necessary as the recession worsens. 'Pragmatic' pick In addition to Geithner and Summers, Obama announced two other members of his economic team: Christina Romer, 49, a University of California-Berkeley economist, as chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers; and Melody Barnes, 44, a former counsel to Sen. Edward Kennedy, as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Taken together, experts said, the first policy team unveiled by Obama represents: •Academic smarts. Summers is a former president of Harvard; the others have similar academic backgrounds. •Practicality over ideology. Geithner is seen as a problem-solver, Peterson said. His strength is "listening carefully to what the problem is, and then deciding on a pragmatic basis what ought to be done about it." •Wall Street smarts without the ties. "You need economists who understand financial markets deeply but don't necessarily come from financial markets," said Jared Bernstein of the liberal Economic Policy Institute. "Both Summers and Geithner know the books down there, but they're not of the Street." House Budget Committee chairman John Spratt, D-S.C., called Obama's top choices "modern-day heirs of great economists like Keynes," a reference to British economist John Maynard Keynes, who advocated government intervention to stimulate economic growth. The question that hung over Monday's unveiling of Obama's economic team — the first of what will be many Cabinet-level introductions — was how much intervention they'll recommend. Obama wasn't saying, except to say a new stimulus package is "going to be costly." House Minority Leader John Boehner and some other Republicans warned about new spending. "As we proceed, we should start by listening to the American people, who do not believe increasing government spending is the best way to put our economy back on track," he said. Greg Valliere, chief political strategist with the Stanford Financial Group, said he understands Obama's position that the nation has only one president at a time. But he said "the financial markets hate uncertainty … a bit more detail would have been well-received." Stan Collender, managing director for Qorvis Communications, a public affairs firm in Washington, D.C., agreed that "at least a hint of the size (of a new stimulus package) would have made some sense." But he said if Obama proposes specific figures so soon, "somebody is going to shoot them down." Reaction was positive from the Bush administration. White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto called Geithner "exceptionally talented." Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson expressed confidence in "his understanding of markets, his judgment and leadership, and his ability to meet the challenges that lie ahead." The team also got a major thumbs-up from Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped nearly 400 points Monday to 8443, adding to a nearly 500-point rally late Friday when word of Geithner's nomination went public. "Investors are looking for clarity of direction, and they are getting it with the designation of the economic leadership team," says David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors. "They like what they see, they recognize the names, and they have comfort in the choices." Smart people 'not enough' While Geithner and Summers are likely to craft Obama's stimulus package, it's not clear who will push it through Congress. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office and the top economic adviser in Republican John McCain's presidential campaign, said they bring more brains than power of persuasion. "If he was dean of the faculty, he would have recruited an outstanding College of Arts and Sciences," Holtz-Eakin said. But "having bright people who have great records is not enough." Geithner has been intricately involved in the Bush administration's response to the financial crisis, including its bailouts of AIG, Bear Stearns and Citigroup and its decision not to help Lehman Bros. He also brings vast international experience and has studied Chinese and Japanese. "Tim understands the language of today's international markets in more ways than one," Obama said. Summers is a veteran of the Clinton administration and, like Geithner, a protégé of former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin. He is viewed as an expert on the interrelationship between the public and private sectors. "He really sees how the moving parts connect," said Bernstein, who has advised Obama in the past. "That's exactly what you want if you're president — someone who can help explain if you press here, what might happen over there." Several outside experts said they expect the National Economic Council, based inside the White House, to become much more of a power center under Summers than it has been in recent decades. "It's going to be a very, very strong position," said Maya MacGuineas, of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, rendered perhaps the highest praise by comparing Geithner and Summers to the sluggers who once formed the heart of the order for his beloved Boston Red Sox. "He's basically signed up Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz," Gregg said. "They're extraordinarily strong nominees." Who's who on the economic team President-elect Obama's economic team:

Timothy Geithner

Lawrence Summers

Christina Romer

Melody Barnes Job Treasury secretary Director of the National Economic Council Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Director of the Domestic Policy Council Education Dartmouth College, B.A., 1983; The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, M.A., 1985. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, B.S., in 1975; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1982. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D., 1985; College of William and Mary, B.A., 1981. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, B.A., 1986. University of Michigan, law degree, 1989. Current position President of Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2003. Economics professor at Harvard University Economics professor at the University of California-Berkeley Co-director of the Agency Review Working Group for the transition Past positions Kissinger Associates, 1985-88; assistant financial attach at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and various U.S. Treasury posts in international affairs, 1988-98; undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, 1998-2001; director of the policy development and review department of the International Monetary Fund, 2001-03; senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, February to August 2001. Domestic policy economist for the president's Council of Economic Advisers, 1982; economic professor at Harvard University, 1983-91; vice president of development economics and chief economist of the World Bank, 1991-93; undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, 1993-95; deputy secretary of the Treasury, 1995-99; Treasury secretary, 1999-2001; president of Harvard University, 2001-06. An assistant professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, 1985-88; visiting scholar at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1991-93 and 2004. Executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress, 2003-08; principal, the Raben Group, 2003-05; chief counsel to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., on the Senate Judiciary Committee, 1995-2003; director of legislative affairs for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; assistant counsel to the House Judiciary subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights; attorney, Shearman & Sterling. Expertise As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Geithner has worked closely with Wall Street firms and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Former U.S. Treasury secretary who then-president Bill Clinton called "a critical part of our economic team during the entire life of this administration." She and her husband, economist David Romer, have studied the history of U.S. monetary policy from the Great Depression to the present. As Kennedy's chief counsel, Barnes worked on immigration, bankruptcy, civil rights, women's rights and religious freedom. Ties to Obama A disciple of former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin, a key economic adviser to the Obama campaign Top economic adviser to Obama campaign Romer was an economic adviser to the Obama campaign Senior domestic policy adviser to the Obama campaign In his/her words On June 9, Geithner spoke at the Economic Club of New York about the need to require banks to hold more cash in good economic times: "Inducing institutions to hold stronger cushions of capital and liquidity in periods of calm may be the best way to reduce the amplitude of financial shocks on the way up, and to contain the damage on the way down." In a 2003 speech to the Chicago Economic Club, Summers spoke of the importance of business ethics. "For it is the irony of the market system that while its very success depends on harnessing the power of self-interest, its very sustainability depends upon people's willingness to engage in acts that are not self-interested." In 2001, after President Bush proposed tax cuts to stimulate the economy, Romer said, "If we are worried about short-run stability, we don't need to mess with the tax code. Monetary policy is perfectly capable of dealing with it." In a 2005 article on the Center for American Progress website, Barnes wrote: "It is unacceptable to speak timidly about the right embodied in Roe v. Wade. Too much is at stake the lives and welfare of women, the well-being of their families, and of great importance a concept of liberty that includes women as equal " Source: USA TODAY research Contributing: David Jackson in Chicago and Adam Shell in New York City Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more