A Towering Economic To-Do List for Obama

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Like other Democrats, Mr. Obama wants to empower bankruptcy judges to ease the terms of home loans on primary residences. Under current laws, judges are prohibited from reducing the balance on those mortgages but can change loans backed by commercial property or second homes.

The shift, proponents say, would help keep millions of people in their homes and ease the broader housing crisis. Many mortgage companies and Wall Street investors, however, might suffer greater losses on the loans and securities backed by them.

The Bush administration and many lenders have argued that changing the bankruptcy law would ultimately drive up mortgage rates, worsening the downturn in the housing market. They also argue that it would violate the sanctity of contracts and drive investors away from the mortgage market.

But with more comfortable majorities in both houses of Congress, Democrats could move quickly. Republicans in the Senate could try to block a change through a filibuster.

Mr. Obama has generally supported the $700 billion financial rescue package that Congress and the Bush administration negotiated and approved last month. He also endorsed the move by the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., to redirect $250 billion of that money to recapitalizing the nation's banks.

But Mr. Obama has not specifically said how he would spend the remainder of the money or whether his administration would acquire loans or securities as Congress initially intended. (The Treasury has made no acquisitions yet and it is unclear if it will do so before the Bush administration leaves office in January.) Mr. Obama has said that the government should help homeowners refinance troubled loans that can be saved. -- VIKAS BAJAJ

FEDERAL REGULATION: Tighter Reins on Wall Street

Mr. Obama called for reorganizing the financial regulatory system months before the housing and credit crises spiraled into a debacle. He outlined six principles, but offered few details.

He said one major priority would be to consolidate the financial regulatory system. He promised to streamline the alphabet soup of agencies, from the Federal Reserve to the Securities and Exchange Commission, that have enforcement powers.

But he has not said which agencies he would eliminate or merge.

Mr. Obama has also pledged to impose stronger liquidity, capital and disclosure requirements on financial institutions, and to subject unregulated financial businesses -- like hedge funds, mortgage brokers, derivatives traders and credit-rating agencies -- to federal oversight.

Mr. Obama promised he would increase penalties for market manipulation and predatory lending, and create a new financial-market oversight commission to review conditions regularly and advise the president and Congress about potential risks.

In one of his campaign-ending speeches on Monday, Mr. Obama said, "The last thing we can afford is four more years where no one in Washington is watching anyone on Wall Street because politicians and lobbyists killed common-sense regulations."

He returned to that theme on Tuesday night after he clinched the election, signaling that the financial industry should brace itself for a regulatory crackdown. Some Democratic lawmakers already have held hearings on what a new financial regulatory landscape would look like. -- JACKIE CALMES

AUTO INDUSTRY: In Detroit, No Cash, No Credit, No Time

General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler are rapidly running out of cash in the worst sales market for new vehicles in 15 years. Both G.M. and Ford are expected to announce billions of dollars more in losses for the third quarter on Friday, and the threat of bankruptcy will grow without some form of federal assistance.

The Bush administration has so far denied G.M., Ford and Chrysler any aid from the $700 billion financial rescue fund or any other new source of assistance. It will, however, pay out the $25 billion in low-interest loans for cleaner cars sooner than had been promised.

The pleas for help from the Big Three are growing louder. "This is really a severe, severe recession for the U.S. auto industry and something we cannot sustain," said Michael DiGiovanni, G.M.'s chief market analyst.

Mr. Obama has promised to meet soon with the chief executives of the Big Three to discuss adding another $25 billion in aid to the loan program for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Democratic leaders in Congress are also considering ways to inject new cash into Detroit as quickly as possible. Michigan's ranking Democrats, Senators Carl Levin and Representative John D. Dingell, will be instrumental in crafting any proposed legislation.

The aid could come in the form of government-backed, low-interest loans, similar to the bailout package for Chrysler in 1979. In addition, the Congress and Mr. Obama could tap the $700 billion financial assistance fund to buy up bad car loans and help automotive lenders get credit flowing to consumers again.

One potential hurdle for aid, however, is the proposed merger of G.M. and Chrysler, which is majority-owned by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. The deal, if completed, would cost thousands of jobs and has so far found little support in Washington. -- BILL VLASIC

HEALTH CARE: An Overhaul Will Have to Wait

Democrats' campaign rhetoric aside, few health care analysts expect the new president and Congress to undertake a sweeping overhaul of the health care industry any time soon.

The more pressing needs of a faltering economy make it unlikely that big changes in health care can quickly make their way to the top of the new agenda. But analysts say the newly empowered Democrats are likely to abandon some of the health care positions staked out by the Bush administration, particularly when it comes to Medicare.

Private insurers' role in Medicare "is target No. 1 for Democrats," said Robert Laszewski, the president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, a consulting firm in Alexandria, Va.

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