Bill Clinton set up the National Economic Council (NEC) to coordinate economic policy making. Here's the text of his executive order: Executive Order 12835 - Establishment of the National Economic Council.. Robert Rubin got his start as the Council's first Director.
If the NEC works right, the President gets a selection of meaningful alternatives for policy decisions, different agencies are assured input into the process, and Presidential decisions get follow through.
The Council's members are cabinet secretaries and the heads of a number of different agencies. The President is the Chairman, but practical responsibility is in the hands of the Council's Director, a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Affairs. The Council has a small staff.
Jason Furman is one of the leading candidates for this job (although there are others, for example this Bloomberg story says Peter Orszag, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, and Jack Lew, OMB Director under Clinton, are also candidates). Furman is also apparently under consideration for other positions as well.
I think Furman could be a good NEC Director.
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