Obama team includes Buffett, Voelker

CORAL GABLES, Fla., Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Barack Obama is consulting with billionaire investor Warren Buffett as he assesses the financial industry bailout plan.

Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, Friday in Florida convened an all-star team of financial advisers, including Buffet and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, to assess a $700 billion Bush administration proposal to buy up distressed mortgage-backed securities, The Financial Times reported.

While saying he backed giving the U.S. Treasury "broad authority" to intervene in the teetering financial markets, he also included a populist-tinged attack on Wall Street insiders, the newspaper reported.

"I think what has to be clear is that whatever we set up is not a bailout for shareholders and CEOs," Obama said. "They need to take their losses because they were enjoying the upside while times were good."

Republican nominee John McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, Friday hit Obama's support for new taxes on the wealthy, saying they risked turning "a recession into a depression," the Financial Times said.