Obama wants to stabilize economy

President-Elect Barack Obama spoke to reporters Friday as the nation awaits his take on the Wall Street meltdown.

In his first public appearance since the election, President-Elect Barack Obama said stabilizing the economy is his major priority.

Obama said, "We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime and we are going to have to act swiftly to solve it."

Obama said that if the lame-duck Congress doesn't pass a stimulus package for the middle class before he takes office in January, that will be his first move.

Two local financial experts that watched the press conference with News 4, disagree on whether that's the right move.

Mike Lomas (Next Financial Group) said, "No I think the top priority should be jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs."

Buffalo State College Economics Professor Doctor Ted Schmidt said, "A short term fiscal stimulus is trying to stabilize the economy and prevent more job losses. So creating jobs is what we need to do in the long run but preventing job losses is another way of keeping jobs."

Standing around Obama was his council of 17 economic advisors.

Dr. Schmidt said, "You've got some really strong names in this group and that alone says to me I'm confident with what they're going to come up with."

The Dow dropped 100 points during Obama's speech, but it closed up about 250 points at the end of the day.

Lomas said, "Some economists thought he should wait until the markets close so they could digest it over the weekend The reality is if you're buying stocks for what they look like tomorrow or Monday or Friday you shouldn't be in the market."

Obama made no new personnel announcements Friday. But Thursday he did name United States Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois as his chief of staff.