Barack Obama announced Wednesday the appointment of Paul Volcker, former Fed chairman, to head an economic recovery advisory board that would act as a new tier of independent advisers to assist him in tackling the economic crisis. In his third press conference on the economy in three days, the US president-elect said the team, to include leaders from “business, labour, academia, and other areas”, would be licensed to challenge assumptions on how to deal with the crisis. The board, set up for two years, would be modelled on the foreign intelligence advisory board established in the 1950s by Dwight Eisenhower, then president, to provide independent advice on intelligence issues. The initiative was the latest from Obama this week in what appears to be a concerted effort to assert his authority before taking office. In recent days he has announced plans for a massive fiscal stimulus package aimed at saving 2.5m jobs and nominated a slew of high-level economic advisers, including Tim Geithner as Treasury secretary.