Obama names Doerr, Phillips to economic board

Two Silicon Valley leaders have been appointed by President Obama to a 16-person committee that's charged with offering economic advice during what has become an unusually sharp and deep recession.

John Doerr, the billionaire venture capitalist at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, is one. Doerr was involved in funding companies including Google, Amazon.com, Sun Microsystems, and Cypress Semiconductor; he currently serves on the board of companies including Amazon and Google and has recently turned his attention to green tech.

Kleiner Perkins investor John Doerr speaks at the MIT Energy Conference last spring.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News)

Charles Phillips, the president of Oracle, is another. Phillips became president in May 2003 and previously was with Morgan Stanley's Institutional Securities Division. He's a Linux aficionado and said in 2005: "On demand is the future of software for many years to come and we are building it on Linux."

On Friday, Obama said he hoped the group, called the Economic Advisory Board, will provide him and his staff with independent advice. The board's chairman will be Paul Volcker, the legendary chairman of the Federal Reserve under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

"I created this board to enlist voices that come from beyond the echo chamber of Washington, D.C., and to ensure that no stone is unturned as we work to put people back to work and to get our economy moving," Obama said. We will meet regularly so that I can hear different ideas and sharpen my own, and seek counsel that is candid and informed by the wider world."

Both Doerr and Phillips have given to Democratic causes in the past. Doerr and his wife are some of the nation's largest political check writers, with $209,680 handed out through the 2006 election cycle, garnering a "Solidly Democratic" rating from OpenSecrets.org. Phillips handed money to Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John Kerry, and the exploratory senatorial committee for New Hampshire's Katrina Swett.

Oracle President Charles Phillips

(Credit: Oracle)

Also appointed to the economic board is Laura D'Andrea Tyson, the dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.

Still unclear is how much influence the board will have, especially because the president has so many other economic advisors. There's the Council of Economic Advisors, the Treasury Department, the Commerce Department, and the Federal Reserve.

On Friday, Obama used the announcement to call for the swift passage of the so-called stimulus package, which started with a price tag of about $300 billion a few months ago and has swollen to nearly $1 trillion. "It is inexcusable and irresponsible to get bogged down in distraction and delay while millions of Americans are being put out of work," he said. "Every day that Washington fails to act, that recovery is delayed."

But many economists have argued the opposite, including in an advertisement in The New York Times, saying that the United States can't borrow its way to prosperity. And the current stimulus has been larded up with random spending projects like $870 million for flu prevention, $6 billion for drinking water projects, and $19.5 billion for school modernization--which is why the Democratic-controlled Congressional Budget Office estimated that only 8 percent of the proposed "stimulus" spending will take place in the 2009 fiscal year.

One of Obama's appointees, Doerr, has argued in favor of a massive diversion of taxpayer dollars to green tech. In March 2007, Doerr gave a speech at the TED conference approvingly citing Al Gore's views on global warming. "I'm really scared--I don't think we're going to make it," Doerr said. "There is a time when panic is the appropriate response. And we've reached that time."

Three years ago, Kleiner Perkins created a $100 million green tech fund, which has invested in technologies including solar cells, fuel cells, smart grid, ethanol, and synthetic fuels. Not-so-coincidentally, Doerr has lobbied for laws at the state level--and, more recently, as part of the "stimulus" proposal--that would benefit his portfolio by moving toward smart grid, solar, and other technology.

[CompEng]

Great. We have an advisory board full of managers and CEOs. Where are the economists? Even college deans are largely political positions.

[AppleSuxLeo]

And "face-job" Pelosi said TWICE that 500 million Americans lost their jobs last month.
Amazing stat , as we only have roughly 300 million Americans total population !
I guess the Obama honeymoon is over already.

[Voice_Of_Logic]

Change, my ass.

[amigosito]

I heartily disagree with the characterization of "$870 million for flu prevention, $6 billion for drinking water projects, and $19.5 billion for school modernization" as "random" spending projects. These are investments that will upgrade our crumbling infrastructure (esp. our schools!) while providing work relief for the unemployed.

There can be no doubt that people are lining up to get their unfair share of this stimulus package, and I don't see anything wrong with scrutinizing the bill, line by line. But consider the source of the criticism of the stimulus package as "pure pork" -- the Republicans in Congress still seem to think that tax breaks are the only way to recover. What kind of tax break could possibly help an unemployed person who doesn't have any taxable income?

[mmichaels]

"What kind of tax break could possibly help an unemployed person who doesn't have any taxable income?"

One that encourages somebody to hire him.

[pentest]

"One that encourages somebody to hire him."

Never has that happened,

With all that has happened, it is astounding that people still hang on to the discredited trickle-down theories,

[sanenazok]

@pentest: what's amazing is that people believe the Keynesian government spending theories. Have you ever run a business? Have you ever had to "make payroll" for employees? Guess what, lower taxes means higher productivity and more employment. It couldn't be simpler. Higher government spending means a temporary boost and a blossoming civil service sector with zero accountability and permanent employment for a small minority, unemployment for everyone else. This is known as France.

[michaelo1966]

if(author.equals("Declan McCullagh")){ credibilityLevel=CredibilityEnum.HATCHET_JOB; }

Seriously, CBS isn't exactly new to the news business; they should enforce some standards before the taint of labeling writing like this as straightforward news erodes their own brand.

At least one nugget did get through, which is that John Doerr will help figure out this mess. It's interesting to compare the Republican vs Democratic technology advisors. Republicans offer up Carly Fiornia, Meg Whitman, and Ken Lay. Democrats give John Doerr and Warren Buffet. 'Nuff said.

[financeprofessor]

Laura D'Andrea Tyson is not the Dean of the Haas School. The Haas School Dean is Rich Lyons.

[financeprofessor]

Doerr will give "independent" advice on what, exactly?
Declan states "Doerr has lobbied for laws at the state level--and, more recently, as part of the "stimulus" proposal--that would benefit his portfolio by moving toward smart grid, solar, and other technology." This is not change anyone can believe in.
It should be noted that Venture capitalists enjoy a different set of tax benefits and currently don't pay taxes on ordinary income for their partnership gains at the same egregious rate as the rest of us mere mortals - they pay in future periods on capital gains.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I strongly suspect this 'indpendant' advice will be very financially beneficial to those companies that these people are already associated with. It's happened before and I don't see it changing now.

Now if each those advisory board members were forced to quit all other jobs and leave any boards they are members of, forced to take the $500,000 max salary the bailout execs are being limited to, THEN I might believe in a bit of more impartiality.

[AppleSuxLeo]

I hope he`s a Doerr and not just a Talkerr.