Bank CEOs' Obama Meeting Spurs Talk of Togetherness

(NEWSER) - Amid growing dissatisfaction with government restrictions on bailout funds, President Obama will meet with bank CEOs on Friday, Reuters reports. Several banks have indicated that they will repay their TARP loans to avoid new government rules. In the meeting with execs from Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and others, Obama will urge them to “look beyond our own short-term interests,” an aide said. More»

Foes concerned about ties that blind

(NEWSER) - As the SEC builds its case charging Goldman Sachs with defrauding thousands of consumers, critics continue to hammer at White House links to the firm. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein met twice with President Obama and twice with economic aide Larry Summers while SEC investigators probed the company. A White House spokesman says the case was never discussed with Goldman or the SEC. But the Goldman-White House ties and their potential impact on policy still troubles many critics. Obama collected nearly $1 million in presidential campaign contributions from Goldman's political action committee, workers and relatives, reports McClatchy Newspapers . More»

His team lacks common touch

(NEWSER) - The White House economic team is great on policy, but when it comes to reassuring the public, President Obama is on his own, Peter Nicholas and Peter Wallsten write in the LA Times. "The ability to communicate with average people was not what these people were chosen for," Clinton's ex-budget director said. And that means it's up to Obama to sell the administration's complex economic plans. More»

Nope, says spokesman: event reports, pics are online

(NEWSER) - At the nadir of the economic crisis, the Obama White House held a lavish Alice in Wonderland-themed Halloween costume party, organized by Johnny Depp and Tim Burton and full of Star Wars character. But with unemployment at 10%, the Tea Party at its apex, and the economic downturn still rocking the country, officials feared the 2009 party would look terribly decadent, so kept it a secret, reports the New York Post . “White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans—or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care—that the event was not discussed publicly, and Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged,” alleges Jodi Kantor in her new book, The Obamas . More»

Bill Daley says Congress won't let Obama be a chief executive

(NEWSER) - Roger Simon of Politico has an entertaining interview with White House chief of staff Bill Daley. Some highlights:

• How it's going: “It’s been a brutal three years. It’s been a very, very difficult three years, an incredible three years. And we are doing all this under the overhang of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. F--k! It wasn’t like all this was happening in good times."
• On 'we can't wait': "Both Democrats and Republicans have really made it very difficult for the president to be anything like a chief executive. This has led to a kind of frustration," and to the president's push for the executive branch to do as much as it can without Congress.