谁是下任美国财长？共和党首选费尔德斯坦？

American voters are lining up to choose the man who will choose the next Treasury Secretary.

Whoever Barack Obama or John McCain names to replace Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will be particularly important since the federal government has already taken unprecedented steps to intervene in the financial markets in an attempt to deal with the credit crisis.

As such, some experts argue that the president-elect could name his nominee for the post as early as Wednesday morning.

"This is a national emergency," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute. "The key of a new administration coming in will be credibility on economic issues."

The Treasury Department is set to make more decisions in the next few weeks about how to spend much of the $700 billion set aside as part of the bank bailout bill enacted last month. That increases the urgency for the next president to have a smooth transition in the Treasury Department.

Top economic policy advisors to the two campaigns did not respond to questions about how quickly a new Treasury secretary would be named. And they wouldn't comment on possible choices being considered.

Yet, with an economic summit of 20 of the world's top economies scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 14 and 15, experts said they'd be surprised if that summit started without a new Treasury secretary being nominated.