Six months ago, during the heart of the Democratic Primary, not many would have believed that the choice of Treasury Secretary would rank among the most important decisions of the next President.

But that choice will be the first Cabinet selection unveiled by President-Elect Obama, as he names his economic team in Chicago.

The pick for Secretary of Treasury is Timothy Geitner.  Not a household name by any means, Geitner has been one of three key officials involved in recent government actions on the economy, as head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

For months, Geitner has worked along with Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to ease the uproar in US and world markets.

Some might argue that is a strike against him, that the actions of those three haven't exactly fixed things, eh?

Obama is also expected to name former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as head of the National Economic Council (basically a top White House economic adviser) and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as Commerce Secretary.

Now, why Richardson would want to give up his job as Governor to be the Commerce chief, I don't know. 

The budget there is pretty small at around $8 billion, and focuses mainly on weather programs at NOAA and the National Weather Service, overseas trade, the digital TV transition and more.

While the markets liked the idea of Geitner as Treasury Secretary, I do wonder if he'll get a somewhat ruder reception from Capitol Hill, especially if the economy continues to act like a large stone dropped into a pond.

What's clear is that Obama knows the economy is job number one.  We'll see if this team is up to fixing it.