Trevor Phillips: Labour's racism | Leading article: Hope against fear | Gerard Baker: The Child returns | Leaders divided in scramble | What Obama must learn | Mirror of history| Master of the web | BLOG: YouTube-isation of politics | The big election quiz | The White House via the West Wing | Bush sheds a tear | Poll inquest for Palin turns ugly | Comment: Matthew Parris

A sombre Barack Obama sought yesterday to bring America’s soaring expectations back to earth after meeting a team of economic experts, as the storm clouds of recession gathered.

“Some of the choices that we make are going to be difficult,” he said. “It is not going to be quick and it is not going to be easy for us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in.”

In his first public appearance since winning an election in which the economy was far and away the top issue, he told a press conference in Chicago: “We’re facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime and we are going to have to move swiftly to resolve it.”

He knows that jittery markets, nervous voters and world leaders, including Gordon Brown, with whom he spoke this week, are looking to him for leadership even before he takes office. But Mr Obama said: “The United States has only one government and one president at a time, and until January 20th of next year that government is the current administration.”

Flanked by members of his 17-strong economic transition team, Mr Obama added: “Immediately after I become president, I’m going to confront this economic crisis head-on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families and restore growth.”

He cited “sobering” figures showing that another 240,000 jobs had been lost last month, pushing unemployment up to its highest rate in 14 years. Home sales fell by 4.6 per cent and the retail market suffered a precipitous decline. Car makers are also pleading for additional government aid to stave off collapse. General Motors said yesterday that it had lost $2.5 billion in the third quarter and gave warning that it could run out of cash next year. Ford is also planning to cut one in ten jobs after posting a $129 million loss between July and October.

On Capitol Hill Democrats plan to use their strengthened grip on Congress to push through a $100 billion package — opposed by President Bush — to stimulate the economy. Mr Bush will hold talks with his successor in the White House on Monday.

Mr Obama said that he favoured passing the package “sooner rather than later”. If it had not been approved before he took office, “it will be the first thing I get done”. But he is not seeking a fight with Mr Bush. “This economy is in bad shape, and we have just completed one of the longest election cycles in recorded history. Now is a good time for us to set politics aside for a while and think practically about what will actually work to move the economy forward. And it’s in that spirit that I’ll have the conversation with the President.”

Mr Obama also emphasised that he would avoid unnecessary haste in his appointments, saying: “I think it’s very important in all these key positions not to be so rushed that you end up making mistakes.”

The billionaire investor Warren Buffett took part in the economic meeting by telephone, and two former Treasury Secretaries, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, attended along with the Mr Obama’s running-mate, Joe Biden. In a mark of how the economy is transforming politics, Mr Obama’s choice for the Treasury post is now subject to the most intense speculation.

Mr Summers sidestepped questions yesterday about whether he would return to the role he occupied under Bill Clinton, saying that Mr Obama “will staff his administration when he is ready”. He added: “My role is to help think about how we can move this economy forward with the greatest possible energy at this critical time.”

Mr Obama also faces pressure from abroad, with Russia rattling bars over missile defence and China urging him to stick with free trade. Iran urged him to replace the Bush Administration’s “war-mongering approach with a pacifist way”.

Mr Obama juggled all this yesterday with a parent-teacher conference for his daughters, Sasha and Malia, at the University of Chicago Laboratory School.

Even his public pledge to buy a puppy has triggered controversy, after animal rights activists demanded he get one from a rescue shelter. He said that Malia was allergic, so the family were seeking a hypoallergenic breed.

“Our own preference would be a shelter dog, but shelter dogs tend to be mutts like me,” he said. This reference to his multi-ethnic background was the only time that he touched on the issue of race, after a week in which he has been elected as America’s first black president.

Mr Obama was criticised by right-wing blogs for being disrespectful to a former First Lady, after joking that he was only seeking advice from former presidents who were still alive. “I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances,” he said.

The President-elect’s team

Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve under Presidents Carter and Reagan; Richard Parsons, former CEO of Time Warner; Laura Tyson, chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, 1993-1995; Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles; William Daley, Secretary of US Department of Commerce, 1997-2000; Roel Campos, former Securities and Exchange commissioner; Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox; Larry Summers, Secretary of the Treasury, 1999-2001; Rahm Emanuel, incoming Chief of Staff at the White House; Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google; Roger Ferguson, former vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; Robert Reich, Secretary of the US Department of Labour, 1993-1997; William Donaldson, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, 2003-2005; Penny Pritzker, CEO of Classic Residence by Hyatt; David Bonior, House of Representatives 1977-2003; Robert Rubin, Secretary of the Treasury, 1995-1999; Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan

Special Report: the Road to the White House

A cold start | The candidates | Obama's controversial pastor | Doubts and celebrity | First Ladies of US comedy | Economy and the new world | Best analysis, opinion and wit | Novelist Ben Okri: a nation delivers

Times Recommends

• 'New York has lost its edge'
• Copenhagen will fail – and quite right too
• More than 17,000 new underwater species found