Obama interviews Altman as new economic adviser

Roger Altman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Evercore Partners, speaks about potential geopolitical implications of the financial crisis at a panel discussion hosted by ''The Economist'' magazine at Pace University in New York October 16, 2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday interviewed investment banker Roger Altman, a former Treasury official, as a candidate to replace departing economic adviser Larry Summers, a White House official said.

Altman, 64, is a veteran of both Washington and Wall Street, steeped in the ways of politics and finance and potentially able to act as a bridge to the private sector that business observers say the Obama White House badly needs.

Summers' replacement will also play an important role in helping Obama find new ways to stimulate a sluggish economy after voters punished the president's fellow Democrats in November 2 congressional elections for stubbornly high unemployment and government deficits.

The process of picking a new National Economic Council director, who coordinates economic policy for the president, is in its early stages, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

"The president is considering a number of qualified candidates, but he has only begun the process and no decisions have been made," Psaki said.

Another White House official said Obama appeared to be narrowing his choices for the job.

Consideration of Altman could signal a move to the center because he is closely associated with moderate economic policies of the Clinton administration.

He served two stints at the Treasury Department, first in 1977-81 as assistant secretary in the administration of President Jimmy Carter, and second in 1993-94 as deputy secretary under President Bill Clinton.

WHITEWATER SCANDAL

Altman resigned in 1994 after lawmakers questioned his truthfulness over testimony he had delivered before Congress during hearings that dealt with the Clintons' Whitewater real estate dealings.

Altman had answered a question about any White House-Treasury contacts by mentioning just one meeting of many and did not say that some of the discussions dealt with a sensitive political point.

The resignation did no harm to Altman on Wall Street, where he founded a boutique advisory firm called Evercore Partners in 1996 that handles mergers, acquisitions and restructuring but also offers investment management services to wealthy clients.

Altman also kept his hand in the political arena, serving as a top economic adviser to Democratic Senator John Kerry in his unsuccessful bid for the White House in 2004, and to Hillary Clinton in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

Altman had a reputation in the Clinton Treasury as a "deficit hawk," a potentially attractive credential when Obama has made halving record government deficits a top priority.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Obama held talks with Altman at the White House on Tuesday but declined to give further details.

Altman's business background would help to counter criticism that Obama's administration lacks senior officials with business expertise and could help the president heal his rift with the business community.

Other names that have surfaced in connection with the search for Summers' replacement include Treasury Department adviser Gene Sperling, who held the post during the Clinton administration, and current NEC Deputy Diana Farrell.

Speculation has also centered on Jared Bernstein, an economic adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden, and Laura Tyson, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who was a top adviser to President Bill Clinton.

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)