Obama Taps Froman for Joint Security, Economic Post

Jonathan Weisman reports on the White House. Michael Froman , a managing director of Citigroup and a law-school friend of President Barack Obama , will be joining the White House next week in an unusual, joint position with the National Security Council and the National Economic Council, according to sources familiar with the appointment. Froman will also serve as the White House’s liaison to the G7, G8 and G20 summits of economic powers. Froman’s job is more evidence of the power that Obama is amassing within the White House. High-wattage cabinet officials, such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner , will have to coordinate policy through a White House staff replete with powerful figures who are exceedingly close to the president, both in their background and their physical proximity. NEC Director Lawrence Summers appears intent on restoring the council to the prominence it held in the early days of the Clinton White House, when it was ... (link)