WASHINGTON — Prime office space in the southeast corner of the Treasury building sits vacant four months into the Obama administration. Its ample desk is empty, the walls are bare.
The assigned occupant? Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve and now chairman of President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Like Volcker, the 16-member advisory board has been largely out of public view despite the administration’s attention to the economy.
On Wednesday, its members will make their first public, joint appearance since Feb. 6. The focus of the board’s presentation is expected to be energy and jobs. As the unpaid chairman of the advisory board, Volcker has been within the president’s reach but not in Obama’s inner circle.
“Walter Mondale used to say that being in the Old Executive Office building was like being in Baltimore,” said Paul Light of New York University. “The people who are right down the hall are the ones who have . . . significant opportunities for influence.” The Associated Press
