WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama wants to see shifts in how some of the nation's biggest economic problems are being handled, from helping the troubled auto industry to aiding homeowners fighting foreclosure, he said in an interview.

While he's said there's only one administration in power right now, he added in an interview with CBS "60 Minutes" airing today there are some changes he would like to see.

"For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment," Obama said. "So it's my belief that we need to provide assistance to the auto industry. But I think that it can't be a blank check."

Obama said he hopes that the White House and Congress will develop an assistance plan with input from all players in the industry — from management to labor and lenders — to develop "a sustainable U.S. auto industry." That hasn't happened yet, he said.

And he wants to see more of a focus in the bailout plan on the needs of homeowners.

"We have not focused on foreclosures and what's happening to homeowners as much as I would like," Obama said. "We've got to set up a negotiation between banks and borrowers so that people can stay in their homes. That is going to have an impact on the economy as a whole." He said that if there's not a focus on homeowners by the time he takes office in January, there will be once he does.

Obama praised the work of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, but has suggestions on how the bailout plan.

"Hank Paulson has worked tirelessly under some very difficult circumstances. I think Hank would be the first one to acknowledge that probably not everything that's been done has worked the way he had hoped it would work," Obama said.

"You know, what we've done is we've assigned somebody on my transition team who interacts with him on a daily basis. And you know, we are getting the information that's required and we're making suggestions in some circumstances about how we think they might approach some of these problems."

Is the Bush administration listening? "We'll find out," he said.

The enormity of the problems also has Obama trying to determine priorities.

"There are times during the course of a given a day where you think, 'Where do I start in terms of moving — moving things forward?' he said.

"And I think that part of this next two months is to really get a clear set of priorities, understanding we're not going be able to do everything at once, making sure the team is in place, and moving forward in a very deliberate way and sending a clear signal to the American people that we're going to be thinking about them."