Washington: US President Barack Obama on Monday underlined the need to boost economic growth so that more jobs are created, as he nominated a Princeton University economist as his top adviser.
"Our great ongoing challenge as a nation remains how to get this economy growing faster," Obama said at the White House as he nominated Alan B Krueger as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), which is a three-member body to advise the president on economic matters.
"Our challenge is to create a climate where more businesses can post job listings, where folks can find good work that relieves the financial burden they're feeling, where families can regain a sense of economic security in their lives," Obama said.
He underlined the need for bipartisan decision making, saying it was time for "decisions based on what's best for the country, not what's best for any political party or special interest."
"That's how we'll get through this period of economic uncertainty, and that's the only way that we'll be able to do what's necessary to grow the economy," Obama said.
Obama said next week he will be laying out a series of steps that Congress can take immediately to put more money in the pockets of working families and middle-class families, to make it easier for small businesses to hire people, to put construction crews to work rebuilding nation's roads and railways and airports and all the other measures that can help to grow this economy.
He emphasised that these were bipartisan ideas that ought to be the kind of proposals that everybody can get behind, no matter what political affiliation one might have.
"So my hope and expectation is that we can put country before party and get something done for the American people. That's what I'll be fighting for. And we've got to have a good team to do it," Obama said.
If confirmed by the Senate, 50-year-old Krueger will continue the CEA s important work of developing and offering the President economic advice on the formulation of both domestic and international economic policy, the White House said.
The Council bases its recommendations and analysis on economic research and empirical evidence, using the best data available to support the President in setting our nation's economic policy.
Currently the Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, he is also the founding Director of the Princeton University Survey Research Centre.
He previously served as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist at the US Department of the Treasury (2009-10) and as Chief Economist at the US Department of Labour (1994-95).
While serving at the Treasury Department, Krueger worked on the economic analysis of a variety of programmes, including the HIRE Act, the Small Business Lending Fund, Build America Bonds and the Car Allowance Rebate System, or "Cash for Clunkers."
Krueger was the Chief Economist for the National Council on Economic Education (2003-09) and elected a member of the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association (2005-07).
In 2002 he was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Russell Sage Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the American Institutes for Research.
Krueger has served as an editor of numerous leading economic journals.
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