園田義明めも。

Three Asian Americans on Obama's team
Last updated 11-13-08 at 12:15 p.m.
By Staff
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
http://www.nwasianweekly.com/2008/27_47/pages/threeasian.html


In a move some consider an indication of what the public will come to expect of the Obama administration, President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden have named three Asian Americans to the Obama-Biden Transition Team — Chris Lu, Sonal Shah and Pete Rouse.

Chris Lu
Chris Lu, a Chinese American, was named as Transition Executive Director. Formerly he was President-elect Obama’s Legislative Director. A classmate of Obama at Harvard Law, Lu has been working for Obama since he took office as a U.S. Senator in 2005.

“I ended up on Capitol Hill, where I’ve always wanted to be,” Lu said in an interview.

According to an interview with the Daily Princetonian, Lu said his day-to-day responsibilities included handling “every bill that (Obama) introduce(d) and every vote that he (cast), every speech he (made), and how he (spent) every minute of every day.”

Lu describes his job as keeping the “trains running on time.”

In the same story, Mark Wenger, Lu’s roommate at Princeton for three years said, “Back in college, it was pretty clear that he was interested in a political career. I actually thought he would wind up as a senator.”

“He was an outstanding student. He always seemed to have all this extra time,” Wenger added. “He was a very socially astute person as well (and) always seemed to be connected with a lot of friends.”

Lu’s classmates said they remember not only his work ethic but also his congenial personality.

Wenger, who called Lu “a lifelong friend,” said his former roommate is “the nicest, most generous guy in the world.”

As for what Lu thinks of the man he’s working for: “(Obama is) as thoughtful and kind and decent and as intelligent a person as he is in private as he is in public,” Lu said. “I’m in awe of the man, and I think he’s going to be a fantastic president.”

Sonal Shah
Sonal Shah is an Indian American economist. She works for Google.org on its Global Development team but has temporarily taken leave from her position to serve on the advisory board for president-elect Barack Obama’s presidential transition team. Born in Mumbai, India, Shah came to the United States in 1972. She graduated from Alief Hastings High School and received a bachelors of arts degree in economics in 1990 from the University of Chicago. She went on to receive her master’s degree from Duke University, also in economics.

On Google.org’s Global Development team, she works on defining the company’s global development strategy. Prior to Google.org, she was vice president at Goldman, Sachs and Co. and developed and implemented the firm’s environmental strategy.

She is also the co-founder of Indicorps, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization offering one-year fellowships for Americans of Indian origin to work on specific development projects in India.

As the former Associate Director for Economic and National Security Policy at the Center for American Progress, Sonal worked on trade, outsourcing and post conflict reconstruction issues. Prior to joining the Center, she was the Director of Programs and Operations at the Center for Global Development managed the daily operations and served as a strategic adviser to the president.

She also developed and managed policy and advocacy programs for the Center. Before that she worked for eight years at the Department of Treasury on various economic issues and regions of the world. She was the Director of the office covering sub Saharan Africa, worked in Bosnia and Kosovo after the war, and served as the senior adviser to the Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary at the Department of Treasury during the Asian financial crisis.

Pete Rouse
Peter Rouse, of Japanese American descent was named to co-chair the Transition Team. He was formerly President-elect Obama’s Chief of Staff in the Senate.

“Pete’s very good at looking around the corners of decisions and playing out the implications of them,” Obama has said an interview. “He’s been around long enough that he can recognize problems and pitfalls a lot quicker than others can.”
They are somewhat of an unlikely pairing with generational differences. Rouse, 61, first started working in the Senate in 1971 — Obama was a 10-year-old in Hawaii then.

Pete Rouse is known as a fixer, a old pro in the world of Washington. The meticulous workaholic rose through three decades of unglamorous legislating to become arguably the most influential Democratic aide in the Senate when he worked for then-Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.).

“His familiarity with Washington makes him somebody whose judgment I trust,” Obama said in an interview. (end)

訂正：アジア諸国の一部は緊急支援が必要、日本は支援の用意＝野上内閣官房参与
2008年 11月 14日 10:01 JST
http://jp.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idJPJAPAN-34899820081114

［東京　１３日　ロイター］　野上義二内閣官房参与は１３日（訂正）、一部のアジア諸国は金融危機に対処するため緊急支援を必要としており、日本政府は支援する用意があると明らかにした。ロイターのインタビューに対して語った。

　野上参与は、韓国が流動性危機に直面しており、日銀と韓国中銀は金融支援に関する協議を加速させる必要があると指摘。インドネシアとも将来的な経済支援について協議している、と述べた。

　そのうえで「多くのアジア諸国は『全面的な嵐』ではないにしても、非常に強い嵐に直面している。私の印象では、彼らは自国の経済について懸念を強めている。彼らは二国間あるいは多国間ベースで、日本に支援を求めている」と語った。

＊第１段落目の「３日」を「１３日」に訂正します。


フィッチ、韓国の格付け見通しを下方修正
http://www.chosunonline.com/article/20081111000016

　信用格付け機関のフィッチ・レーティングスは10日、韓国の銀行は対外債務の返済負担が大きいという理由で、韓国の長期外貨建て債務の格付け見通しを「安定的」から「ネガティブ」に下方修正したと発表した。

　これに対し、韓国政府は「銀行の対外債務問題は安心できる水準ではないが、国家の格付け見通しを下方修正するほどではない。下方修正は韓国経済に対する過剰反応だ」と反発した。

　フィッチは韓国の長期外貨建て債務の格付け自体は現在の「A＋」（24段階の格付けで上から5番目）に据え置いたが、格付け見通しを「ネガティブ」としたことで、状況に改善が見られなければ半年から1年以内に引き下げに踏み切ることを予告した形だ。

　フィッチのマコーマック国家信用格付け局長（アジア太平洋担当）は本紙の取材に対し、「韓国の信用格付けが近く低下する可能性は50％以上ある。ただ、韓国は通貨危機には直面しない」との認識を示した。

　しかし、フィッチが今年7月と10月に「韓国の信用格付けには変化がない」との判断を下した当時の状況と比べ、現在は外貨流動性の条件などが改善されており、韓国政府と金融業界はフィッチがそれでも格付け見通しを下方修正したことに納得できずにいる。

　韓国政府関係者は「10月以降、韓米通貨スワップ協定が結ばれ、日本、中国とも通貨スワップの拡大可能性が高まっており、信用格付けはむしろ上方修正されてしかるべきだ」と主張している。

　一部の金融業界関係者もフィッチが英国系であることを指摘し、「最近英メディアが韓国だけをネガティブな報道の対象にしていることとも一脈通じているのではないか」との見方を示した。

金起勲（キム・ギフン）記者