President-elect Barack Obama held his third economy-related press conference of the week today, and promised the nation that he will have a concrete plan in place by the time he’s sworn in next month.

Declaring that "help is on the way," Mr. Obama attempted to quell fears of a recession by promising that his team, many of whom have worked in the White House under past administrations, will "combine experience with fresh thinking." He continued, "But understand where the vision for change comes from. First and foremost, it comes from me. That’s my job, is to provide a vision in terms of where we are going and to make sure then that my team is implementing."

As part of his efforts to gain a tighter grip on the economy, Obama announced today the creation of a new office, President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which will be headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who served under both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Volcker’s approach to the economic crisis of the 1980s — including raising interest rates and restricting the flow of money — has been cited as sending the United States into a terrible recession. The news comes just as the government announced unemployment claims are still at recessionary levels, the real estate market’s at an 18-year low and consumers are keeping their money to themselves.

Sure, this isn’t the best pre-Thanksgiving news, but at least Obama and his economic team are keeping their cool. Hopefully that will be enough to calm jittery Americans as they head into this holiday weekend.