The Financial Crisis

Thursday, September 18, 2008 at 10:00 AM EDT
The Financial Crisis


A street sign for Wall Street is shown Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

A street sign for Wall Street is shown Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

What a time — all-out financial crisis in the neck-and-neck homestretch of an historic presidential campaign, all in a handful of weeks.

Economic turmoil has the country, the world, by the throat. And it really will fall to John McCain or Barack Obama — and soon — to clean it up, or try to.

When they pick up the phone for economic advice, who do they call? Today, we’ll hear from two of those economists: McCain advisor John Taylor of Stanford, a high-ranking Treasury official under George W. Bush. And Obama advisor Lawrence Summers of Harvard, former Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton.

This hour, On Point: The hottest issue on earth — McCain, Obama, and the economy in crisis.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he’s traveling with John McCain, is John Taylor, advisor to the McCain campaign and former Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He is a professor of economics at Stanford University and a senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He also served on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors during the Ford and George H.W. Bush administrations.

Joining us from Washington is Lawrence Summers. He’s an economic advisor to Barack Obama and former Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He served as chief economist at the World Bank from 1991-1993 and was president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006.