Nicole: Recruiting other than the usual suspects to Treasury and the Fed would send a powerful message, particularly if the Republican party were to start its talent search now. Personnel is policy. What a contrast to the Obama administration that would present!
The president demonstrated his fundamental incompetence at this early on, when in the midst of a great economic crisis he was unable to fill key slots in Treasury and thus never developed his campaign platitudes into policy. Having no economic team, the administration was forced to subcontract policy to Congress, which allowed parochial congressional horse-trading to prevail in the economic stimulus and in the health-care bill.
As you note, there are hundreds of potential candidates at our small- and mid-cap companies, along with the academics and bigger firms that aren’t on the government dole. Developing a deep talent pool now would show that Republicans are serious about hitting the ground running. And at the rate things are going, they’ll need to.