New York Times report
The President is "strongly considering" Christopher Liddell to lead the economic team at the White House, the New York Times reports, citing two sources.
Liddell is currently the director of strategic initiatives at the Whites House and was formerly an executive at GM and Microsoft, where he was CFO in 2005.
Liddell was born in New Zealand and has worked closely with Jared Kushner since joining the administration.
Liddell would be seen as good news for markets because he has a background in business and his political leanings appear to be neutral, or at least not exhibiting any of the zealotry of some of his colleagues. In 2012, he served as executive director of Mitt Romney's presidential transition team.
However after the 2016 election he said:
"I worked in the private sector all my life, so I'm a believer in free markets, but not unbridled free markets," Mr. Liddell said. "And we've had 30 years since the mid-'80s, both in New Zealand and here in the U.S. and globally, of basically free markets being driving the whole thinking, the whole rhetoric around governing. I think those days are over, personally. I think we're going to go through a circular trend of a much more restrained free market."
