Jobs Summit Guests Include Paul Krugman, Eric Schmidt

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Economy

(AP)

Among the guests at President Obama's jobs summit on Thursday, formally called the "Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth," will be Eric Schmidt, the head of Google, and Disney chief Bob Iger, according to a partial list released by the White House.

Also on the list is Nobel Prize winning New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman, pictured at left.

The White House expects approximately 130 attendees for the forum. Here's the list of confirmed attendees, which includes representatives from major companies and non-profit groups, small business owners, elected officials, union heads and academics:

Eric Schmidt, Google
Randall Stevenson, AT&T
Surya Mohapatra, Qwest
Frederick Smith, Federal Express
Brian Roberts, Comcast
Bob Iger, Disney
James McNerney, Boeing
Andrew Livens, Dow
Peter Solmssen, Siemens
Stephanie Burns, Dow Corning
Phaedra Ellis Lamkins, Green for All
Reed Hundt, Coalition for the Green Bank
Larry Mishel, EPI
Alan Blinder, Princeton
Paul Krugman, Princeton
Joe Stiglitz, Columbia
Bob Greenstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia
David Ickert, Air Tractor
Woody Hall, Diversapack
Rose Wang, Binary Group
Anna Burger, Change to Win
Leo Gerard, United Steel Workers
Joe Hansen, United Food and Commercial Workers
Randi Weingarten, AFT
Mayor Frank Cownie, Des Moines, IA
Mayor Julian Castro, San Antonio, Texas
Mayor Ed Pawlowski, Allentown, PA

The White House forum Thursday comes as members of Congress work to craft a jobs bill to address the fact that jobs have largely not materialized even as economists say the recession has ended. With the 2010 midterm elections looming, lawmakers are eager to show they are working to address the 10.2 percent unemployment rate and are sensitive to the struggles of everyday Americans dealing with what is increasingly being called a "jobless recovery."

The president will kicks off a "Main Street Tour" on Friday in Allentown, Pennsylvania to further spotlight his own awareness of the situation. At the forum on Thursday, he will solicit ideas for potential steps to "encourage and accelerate job creation in this country," as he said in announcing the event.

"It's important we don't make any ill-considered decisions...particularly at a time when our resources are so limited," Mr. Obama said earlier this month. "But it's just as important that we are open to any demonstrably good idea to supplement the steps we've already taken to put America back to work."

Forum attendees will break into six discussion groups to examine "innovative and green jobs, small business incentives, long-range infrastructure plans, encouraging export-oriented businesses, government and private sector partnerships and training for the jobs of the future," according to the Times.

While the White House has stressed creating jobs in the clean energy sector and incentivizing small businesses to increase employment levels, the Wall Street Journal reports, business leaders are largely pushing for tax cuts and more access to credit.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by eyeswideoopen December 2, 2009 10:59 PM EST: This idea for the summit is just perfect. It's a bunch of powdered and pampered rich, well connected people who probably never did an honest days work in their lives. They all participated in destroying the "old economy" based on the idea of the "new economy" with green jobs. Now the topic of summit will be "what is a green job?" Another subject will be "just go out - be an entreprenuer and create your own job". (Yeah right...) Finally, there will be a discussion on how useless, lazy, uneducated and unworthy the American people are - despite the fact that it was the American people who built the country upon which these parasites are now feeding. There will be no mention of how they sold out our country and our people.; Reply to this comment


by Moonage Webdream December 2, 2009 8:48 PM EST: OK, how many jobs has Paul Krugman created in his lifetime? When was the last time someone credited SEIU for creating jobs? Coalition for Green Bank? What the hell is that? How many jobs are city mayors creating right now? This forum is a farce. Sure, there's a handful of private sector, but its overwhelmed with unions, academia, political action groups, and special interest groups. It can be argued that all the rest simply leach off what the private sector generates for them. Look at them, unions - dues, city mayors - taxes, academia - dues and taxes, 527's - donations, PACs - donations, special interest groups - donations. Maybe if Obama stacked his "jobs forum" with people who actually create jobs his employment problem might improve. However, if all he's going to do is put together a group that sucks off the private sector even more, his jobs situation's going to get lots worse real damn fast.; Reply to this comment


by DavidEHPerry December 2, 2009 1:47 PM EST: The Obama Jobs Summit gets it exactly wrong.

Instead of hoping for more jobs to be created, people can find work faster by looking more creatively for existing jobs, up to 90% of which are not advertised.

Example: Three people in the Detroit area -- America's worst job market -- did just that. And all 3 got jobs in November, after 7 weeks of looking creatively, far faster than the national average of 26.9 weeks. See: http://***********/ylpkhjl

For details, contact David Perry at dperry@perrymartel.com; Reply to this comment


by pjk12354 November 30, 2009 4:24 PM EST: For everybody at the Job Summit:

I hope you have a good time.
I've been out of work for 15 months. I'm employable. Have someone hire me.; Reply to this comment


by bacaangel November 30, 2009 3:39 PM EST: Surely, with those "brilliant" minds something will be accomplished. I only hope that this "something" can be implemented without the blessing of Congress. If Congress has to bless this "something" that too may not get done and we will once again have ideas that do not get implemented.; Reply to this comment