What a Romney administration economic team might look like The most visible member of any administration's economic team is the Treasury secretary, and here Romney has a number of interesting options. Robert Zoellick completed a five-year term as president of the World Bank over the summer, and has been advising Romney as part of his foreign policy transition team. The former U.S. trade representative under the George W. Bush administration would likely be a top contender for Treasury secretary in a Romney administration, assuming he did not end up in a top foreign policy job such as secretary of state. In that sense, attacks on him from the neoconservative wing of the Republican Party increase the odds that he ends up at 1500 Pennsylvania Ave. rather than Foggy Bottom. Rob Portman, the senator from Ohio who was considered as a potential Romney vice president and has been an effective campaign surrogate, would surely warrant some consideration to be the administration's chief economic policymaker. At a time that high-stakes negotiations over the budget are likely, Portman has knowledge of both the substance (he was director of the Office of Management and Budget under Bush), and a sense of the politics from his time in the Senate. One major downside is that his appointment would leave a Senate vacancy in a swing state at a time that control of the body may hinge on a single vote or two. Romney and Portman have had plenty of facetime in recent days: Portman has portrayed Obama in preparations for Wednesday night's debate. Glenn Hubbard was chairman of George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers early in his administration was an architect of the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. He has advised Romney in both his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. It is rare for an academic to serve as Treasury secretary (Larry Summers at the end of the Clinton administration was the only one in recent decades), but Hubbard, in both his career as a political adviser and as dean of Columbia Business School, has been effective in areas far beyond the ivory tower. One more promising candidate for Treasury is not an individual at all, but an archetype. Call it the Mystery CEO. In Romney's long business career he has come into contact with hundreds of capable corporate executives and could well decide that one of them has the right mix of skills to be a good Treasury secretary. This was the approach that George W. Bush took with his first two appointments to the office: Paul O'Neill and John Snow, who had been chief executives of aluminum giant Alcoa and railroad CSX, respectively. Neither was on the radar of many Washington policy hands before his appointment, and Romney could come up with a similar surprise. Arguing against it: Neither O'Neill nor Snow had a particularly illustrious run in the job. Beyond those bold-faced names, there are two more Bush administration veterans who are less widely known but would be worth considering for Treasury; even if passed over for the big job, they could be strong deputy Treasury secretaries or serve as a close-to-the-president's-ear adviser in the White House. Randal Quarles is, as blogger Felix Salmon put it, a "mini-Romney." After serving in the Bush Treasury (including as undersecretary for international affairs), he joined the Carlyle Group; he and Romney are perhaps the most prominent Mormon private equity executives in existence. More substantively, he earned rave reviews in the Bush administration for his competence and team-player approach to governing. Kevin Warsh served in the Bush White House and then five years as a Federal Reserve governor, where he was among Fed chief Ben Bernanke's closest colleagues during the response to the financial crisis. He has distanced himself from Bernanke's monetary easing since 2010, however, which makes him more simpatico with Romney's economic policy views. Warsh, 42, would be young for a Treasury secretary, but then, he has seemed too young for every job he has ever had. He has told friends, however, that he prefers to stay in New York and in the private sector. As Romney staffed up the White House, Douglas Holtz-Eakin would be a strong candidate for a couple of senior jobs. The former Congressional Budget Office chief could bring his knowledge of fiscal policy to the Office of Management and Budget or could serve as the all-purpose traffic manager for economic policy as director of the National Economic Council. Others who had economic policy roles in the Bush years who might be due for a promotion in a Romney administration include Tim Adams, former Treasury undersecretary; Chuck Blahaus, an expert in Social Security and Medicare; and Kristin Forbes, an MIT economist who served on Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.