Aide defends White House on economy
Romer cites administration's initiatives on housing, lending and other issues - expects economy to 'bottom out' in 2009.
The FixersWASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama's lead economist predicted Sunday that the nation's struggling, recessionary economy will be growing by the end of the year.
"I have every expectation, as do private forecasters, that we will bottom out this year," Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said on CNN's "State of the Union."
"And, [we'll] actually be growing again by the end of the year."
Romer defended the new administration's economic policies in the face of growing criticism by Republicans -- particularly over how Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner handled payment of more than $165 million in bonuses to AIG employees, and how Geithner has been slow to roll out the specifics of his plan to stabilize some of the nation's largest banks.
"I think it is important to realize this is just one piece of what we're doing," Romer said of the bank rescue plan the administration plans to announce Monday.
Romer pointed to administration initiatives on housing, small business and consumer and business lending.
"I don't think Wall Street is expecting the silver bullet . . . there'll be more to come," she said.
Romer also left open the possibility that the White House could take more drastic action to stabilize the nation's mortgage market through its control over mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500). She suggested the two massive entities could be broken up in order to make them more manageable and possibly avert another financial and mortgage crisis.
"I think that's certainly going to be an issue going forward," she said when asked whether the two companies needed to be broken up. "I think it should be part of the overall financial regulatory reform."
In the wide-ranging interview, Romer also said she's "not sure it's useful" to get to the bottom of exactly how the recent stimulus bill came to include language protecting the AIG bonus payments. But, she said, Obama is "very aware" of "just how outrageous these things are." 
