The Washington Post is pleased to let us know that “Geithner tells Obama he will remain as Treasury secretary“:
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has told President Obama he plans to remain in his job through the fall of 2012, keeping in place Obama’s longest-serving economic adviser after the first-ever U.S. credit downgrade and renewed fears of a second recession. […] __
Geithner’s departure would have marked the loss of Obama’s longest-serving economic adviser at a time when the recovery has slowed and the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high. Geithner is the last remaining member of the president’s original economic team. Austan Goolsbee, chairman of Council of Economic Advisers, left Friday…
__
During his tenure, Geithner has continually won over Obama in contentious policy debates. He shaped the president’s response to the financial crisis, successfully arguing that the government should not seize struggling banks.
__
More recently, he urged Obama to propose cutting the annual deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years, despite other top advisers advocating that the president focus squarely on the nation’s high unemployment… He was one of the architects of the Wall Street bailout in the fall of 2008 and faced sharp criticism in his first year as Treasury secretary, including calls for his resignation. He has been accused of protecting the bonuses of Wall Street traders while paying insufficient attention to the nation’s foreclosure epidemic.
Some people say! Not exactly a subtle stilletto job from the Kaplan Daily, is it? All the (other) rats may have deserted the Titanic, but the former “head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York“, though “exhausted from the multiple crises of recent years”, has relocated his household safely outside the Beltway free-fire zone and will remain in the arena. (As if his proposed replacements — Erskine Bowles? Roger Altman? — were liable to differ in their recommendations.) It’s a business truism that any employee who never takes a vacation or a sick day is either hoping to substitute diligence for competence, or hiding the evidence of embezzlement. Looks like the WaPo may be trying out the TresSec for the role of scapegoat in this week’s financial drama… although it’s not as if he doesn’t deserve his fair share of credit.
Reality Check
TIMMEH is the worst treasury secretary ever.
It turns out a guy who can’t even do his own taxes correctly sucks at running the nation’s finances. Who knew?
LM
Congressional Reps would have blocked anyone Obama tried to appoint to replace Geithner. And since they keep blocking recess appointments by refusing to formally recess (it’s been nearly a year, hasn’t it?), it was Geithner or an empty chair. My sense is that Geithner would have liked to leave, and perhaps Obama would have liked a different choice. But we do need a Treasury Secretary, and Reps would never have lifted holds on anyone qualified.
Corner Stone
“You know that comes with a private island?”
“Really??”
“No. It comes with a hat.”
Democrats 2012!
Corner Stone
i blame Obama
/in before cleek
some guy
Geithner committed crimes while President of the NY Fed. The TARP Inspector General made it quite clear what laws Geithner violated while dissolving Lehman. The response was truly bipartisan : “Ho Hum. Laws were broken, but let’s look forward, not back.”
Geithner’s thinking that the statue of limitations will run out before a Republican ever even bothers to read Barofsky’s SIGTARP report, much less ask for indictments of Geithner.
feh!
Stuart Philipp
Anne–
You’ve never been so mean. Please keep it up!
Tim’s dad was one of BO’s mom’s mentors or something . . . .
Sly
@Reality Check:
Andrew Mellon.
Reality Check
@Sly:
Andrew Mellon had enough self-respect to resign.
Baud
@LM: Yeah, exactly. He’s gone after the election one way or the other.
JGabriel
WaPo via Anne Laurie @ Top:
I gotta admit, it’s kind of puzzling that Geither was talked into staying even after the credit downgrade. OTOH, maybe Obama didn’t want to give S&P the satisfaction of making any changes in response to their provocations.
Edited to Add:
LM:
Also a good point.
.
JPL
If I were the President, I would accept Geithner’s resignation upon approval of the next one. The Senate has let it known they will not approve anyone. The last thing the country needs is no treasury secretary.
Alex
He can’t resign because the Republicans will block anyone Obama nominates.
And then run against Obama not having a Treasury Secretary.
JPL
@JGabriel: he can’t quit..hello..The President and the country would be left without a treasury secretary during a difficult time. The repubs are going filibuster anyone..
Yutsano
@JGabriel:
This. The White House is pushing back on the downgrade by S&P hard (and notice the other two big agencies haven’t followed suit yet?) so having Geithner resign would be essentialy confirming their case. Of course their ever-evolving explanations as to why they did it are smelling like last week’s salmon bones in the waste basket.
beltane
@JPL: That’s a good idea, though when the Republicans once again make it clear that they won’t approve a new Treasury Secretary, and that they are doing everything in their power to destroy the economy, our fifth column media will inevitably tell us that both sides do it.
chopper
hillary totally would have fired geithner.
JGabriel
@LM:
Fixed for ambiguity — it could have been easy for someone to get confused and think Reps meant Representatives rather than Republicans. And then they would have had it in the wrong house and their heads would have exploded.
This is safer. Much less brain viscera on the walls.
.
Baud
@Yutsano:
I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I read the S&P reasons as essentially attacking Republicans for political gamesmanship. On the other hand, I see their action in downgrading the U.S. as playing politics, which is something an entity with the ability to manipulate markets shouldn’t do.
Josie
@chopper: And rammed through a new treasury secretary by using the bully pulpit.
toschek
I’m waiting for some dumbass on FDL to start a draft Elizabeth Warren for Treasury Sec. petition, should happen any minute now right?
jl
Given the purported alternatives, Geithner may be the best we can do for now.
I read reports of the stimulus debate that occurred in early 2009, and the level of debate was sad. Geithner said that too much stimulus spending would be like giving a kid sugar, would get the kid active through a sugar high and then crash. And Summers and Romer were saying the economy was like a sick person with a bacterial infection, and the course of antibiotics had to be long enough to control the infection.
I assume Summers and Romer can talk about macroeconomics without using silly and inaccurate metaphors, so the sad state of the debate was due either to Geithner or Obama not knowing enough economics to have a real debate.
Was it Geithner’s demonstrated weasality, or Obama’s reported arrogance? Who knows?
But the sugar high metaphor, and the reports of an Geithner/Obama mind meld on economics is what makes me suspect that, to the extent G/O understand macroeconomics, they are center right business friendly Keynesians (aka Rockafeller Republicans, harkening back to when these existed). They cannot imagine a situation where aggregate demand and supply can have a wide discrepancy for a long period of time.
So, I do not think that Obama’s emphasis on productivity and efficiency enhancing stimulus spending is due to playing eleventy dimensional PR and political chess. I think he believes that it is the only safe and sane macro policy. If that is true, it makes no difference who the Treasury Sec is, the macroeconomic policy will remain the same.
The irony is that supposed commie s o s h u l i s t central planners like Galbraith, Stiglitz, and Krugman have been making the point that the current ‘extend and pretend’ policy on finance has prevented standard decentralized market and legal mechanisms for resolving the housing bust and bad mortgage problem.
And also too, that the kind of narrowly targeted investment projects that businesses will favor (since they can see some specific money goodies for themselves in the policies) in this kind of business friendly Keynesian macro are too unreliable in terms of increasing long run productivity to be justifiable on that basis.
So, we are moving along in an eternal 1939, if we are lucky, except with more corporate crony capitalism, with hidden central planning and spending decisions that can gain the approval of specific big business and finance interests as the only acceptable tools of macroeconomic stimulus. Which will be too little to do the demand stimulus needed, and will not reliably produce increases in long term economic productivity or efficiency.
JGabriel
@some guy:
… is in the Museum of Regret, Lost Love, and Failed Because We Didn’t Try, on the second floor, to the right, beside The Fountain of Pointless Longing and the Monument to All This Useless Beauty.
.
lamh34
As I said in a previous thread, Can you imagine Obama trying to get anyone appointed let alone nominated?
The fuckin’ repubs won’t even have a complete recess so POTUS hasn’t been able to make any recess appointments.
From all we’ve seen of this GOP so far, why would they be reasonable?
Elie
@Yutsano:
Thank YOU!
I was wondering if anyone else took the strong exception that I did to S&Ps interference in the POLITICAL process — ostensibly for financial reasons. This is a horrible precedent and they had not business doing it and need to be completely laid out. NO business — it makes me shiver to think what this could open up with an un-elected, unaccountable entity trying to weigh in on the process. The process may be ugly, but it was completely legal and they had NO business sticking their noses in it with that decision. We don’t even know who in their fucked up organization was behind this travesty.
Baud
@lamh34: Plus, who would he even conceivably nominate that the left wouldn’t perceive as a sell out. It’s a no win for Obama if Geithner resigns now.
NobodySpecial
So many words. Let me boil it down for you, Strunk & White style.
Nothing can be done.
jl
OK, now this is important…
America’s Best Ice Cream Cities
By Food & Wine
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-40553241
Except they left out Moo Cafe Creamery in Bakersfield, CA, right off of highway 99.
http://www.moocreamery.com
(but their website is down right now, for some reason)
JGabriel
Elie:
Hey, what am I? Chopped liver?
Now I feel like flayed offal. Sadness.
.
Elie
@jl:
Naw, naw, naw…
Best Ice Cream in the United States is in Bellingham Washington at Mallard’s Ice Cream on Railroad Avenue. Bar none..
Have you ever had Avocado ice cream (wonderful!). The most wonderful ices from coconut macadamia to mint lemonade. Great ice creams like chocolate with black pepper (yes!) and Earl Grey Tea. They also have a rockin’ cardamon which is just over the moon on apple pie…
Nope, they missed this one..
burnspbesq
@some guy:
Crimes? Name ’em. Specific references to specific provisions in Title 18. And the evidence to prove every element of each offense.
You want to play U.S. Attorney, play it all the way.
Or sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up.
Elie
@JGabriel:
Did you think the same thing J? I am so sorry that I missed that but I am equally happy that you and others are noting…
burnspbesq
@Elie:
Sorry, must disagree. Van Dyk’s, on Ackerman Avenue in Ridgewood, New Jersey. You have not lived until you’ve had a two-scoop cone, one scoop of canteloupe and one scoop of black raspberry.
jl
@24 Ellie
I don’t know that I take exception to the political reasons S&P used to give the downgrade. Think that is their proper function, and if the political deadlock is so bad in their opinion that it might prevent money due being paid, then they are doing what a credit rating agency is supposed to do. I think they were very even handed and neutral in their characterization of the political stalemate and who was largely to blame. They were not ‘balanced’ but made the argument in a fair and objective way. Which is, I think, why I heard this morning some Democrats use the downgrade to point to the teabaggers, and the GOP is howling gibberish and nonsense.
What I object to is the S&P dressing up the political analysis with hack macroeconomic analysis. Their macro analysis is incompetent, and I’ll give a link showing one reason why in a moment.
What they did was cowardly, dishonest and grotesquely incompetent, IMHO, except for their political analysis, which they were too cowardly to go with, but have decided to mix it up with their F grade level ,macroeconomic analysis.
jl
@Elie:
I believe you. Bellingham not on their list. Avocado sounds good. Might go nice with Moo’s ginger lemongrass.
What a crummy best ice cream list I linked too. Sorry, everyone.
Elie
@burnspbesq:
EWWWWWW —
I love ice cream shops that do creative things with fresh, when available, local ingredients.
We live in a heavy dairy county and have great milk products and berries as well (strawberry, blueberries, raspberries and all the rest). Makes for a marriage made in heaven, to my mind — dairies and berries make elie smile…
PeakVT
Thank goodness Reid made a “gentleman’s agreement” with McConnell to prevent blatant obstructionism on nominations and whatnot.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Or he’s a computer programmer. I almost never take vacation or sick days. I prefer to get paid for those days when I leave for another job.
Elie
@jl:
Jl — as usual you give a detailed and specific analysis which I appreciate.
I just think that they had NO justification for this precedent and I am scared that it will be repeated unless its somehow rescinded. Yeah, I understand that they have an interest in the system working a certain way, but this has to be carefully asserted if they want to avoid the appearance of trying to work the system. Its not their job and as you stated, they couldnt do THEIR job without errors. They should therefore not have gone forward with their decision since their numbers didn’t add up.
I think their little foray was bad — bad for us now and bad for the future unless completely disavowed. The United States used its political process accurately and systematically. Its not their job to roll their eyes with impatience or push the uncertainty to certainty by their hand. Its OUR job.
JGabriel
@Elie:
Heh. It was me calling S&P’s actions provocations to Obama that Yutsano was responding/agreeing to in the comment you linked. No biggie.
.
jl
Forget the list I posted.
It says Bi Rite is the exemplar ice cream joint in San Francisco. Well, maybe if you like malted flavors, and salted up caramel, and chocolate (and I do).
But any one comes to the SF Bay should go find Mitchell’s Ice Cream.
http://www.mitchellsicecream.com/html/welcome.htm
Banana, and their coconut flavors, and the seasonal stuff is tops. I see they don’t list some of the odder Filipino themed things, but maybe they were one offs or have been discontinued.
Elie
@JGabriel:
Yeah, I followed it back. You did, you did…
Elie
@jl:
I really like the idea of the salted caramel… I love those things in candy and can eat bunches. Also salted chocolates. Yum! (would be interesting to see how they do that with ice cream)
jl
@38
Yes, I agree, the political stalemate issue is dangerous for a credit ratings agency to use for a rationale. But political stalemate is the only thing that would prevent the US from paying good money to pay their debts, and the one thing a credit agency is supposed to do is report if there may be a problem with a borrower paying money due on its debts.
So, there you are, what can you do?
When people (the GOP and their teabagger nutcakes) force a situation into unexplored and dangerous territory, then dangerous things might happen. Putting these cheezy ratings agencies into such an influential position involving politics is one of them, and is dangerous.
But, as I said, what are you going to do?
If S&P had to rely on its economic analysis, it would be a laughing stock, at least among most reality based macroeconomists.
Elie
@jl:
I can see that — (or taste it, rather)
Comrade Kevin
@jl: People should actually visit Rick’s Rather Rich in Palo Alto.
JGabriel
@jl:
Bingo. And minus a sound economic analysis, we didn’t deserve the downgrade — even with the correct political analysis.
There’s no economic reason to believe the US will default on its debt; and the political reasons for default have been deferred until 2013. In other words: the US is set for short-term debt, and longer term political hijinks are out of range for S&P’s forecast abilities.
.
Derf
Hey Anne,
Sorry to hear about that bug that crawled up your ass and died. Seems you have been pulling out all sorts of shit to try get at it.
Svensker
@burnspbesq:
For some reason I never went there for ice cream when we lived there. Still regret it. What was I thinking! ? ! Maybe next time we go visit the rellies.
Elie
@JGabriel:
Totally agree. Of course, that has pretty much cemented Geithner in place (aside from the very real Republican unwillingness to approve any replacement).
S&P may feel that they can slide on this boo boo, but I am not so sure. We will see. Again, this is not a precedent that can be just left unchallenged. Its HOW to do it (the challenge).
JGabriel
@Derf:
This insult, no point. Insults that don’t make a point are about as funny as banana peels that don’t slip.
Fail.
.
Elie
@Comrade Kevin:
EWWW — some delicious and creativ selections. It seems San Francisco’s got the creamery thing really going on…
WaterGirl
Can someone be banned for making a disgusting comment? Because I nominate Derf at #47 for a time-out on this one. Ick.
jl
Brad DeLong quotes from acting asst Treasury Secretary John Bellows’ critique of the S&P’s downgrade
The Rating Agency Clown Show
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/08/the-rating-agency-clown-show.html
DeLong does not give a link (he is bad about that, sometimes) but it is from the Treaury’s blog:
Just the Facts: S&P’s $2 Trillion Mistake
By: John Bellows 8/6/2011
http://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Pages/Just-the-Facts-SPs-2-Trillion-Mistake.aspx
You could argue that Treasury is being self serving here, except that the situation is very simple. S and P used the wrong baseline budget numbers that did not include changes in fiscal spending policy over the last year. They admitted that they used the wrong numbers.
Instead of taking the time to redo their analysis and re evaluating the situation, they changed their rationale and went ahead and issued the downgrade anyway.
Elie
@jl:
And its that headlong thing that has me the most concerned. WHY were they so hell bent on issueing the downgrade? Why?
Jenny
Are there any non-economists who would make a good Treasury Secretary?
The question arises because only a handful of economists have been Treasury Secretary. Even Henry Morgenthau and Carter Glass weren’t economists. And Hamilton was a lawyer, not an economist.
jl
Edit: forgot to say that these stories give some interesting detail on the story.
Dispute Over ‘Basic Math’ Began With S&P E-Mail
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/110807/dispute-over-%E2%80%98basic-math%E2%80%99-began-sp-e-mail
Treasury official faults credit rating downgrade
Says S&P made calculation error of $2 trillion
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/08/07/treasury_official_faults_credit_rating_downgrade/
Elie
@WaterGirl:
I second that. Creepy
Elie
@jl:
again, as you say, they knew they made an error but went on anyway…
jl
Putting on my completely cynical hat for a moment, a likely theory would be that the rentier interests who want to keep inflation and interest rates low leaned on S and P to issue a downgrade no matter what the facts.
Sounds crazy, no? Because a downgrade means higher interest rates, right? Well, if you are an individual debtor, or a country that does not have its own currency (like Greece) then yes.
But if you are large country with its own currency, the only thing preventing the debtor country from paying is the political issue of whether they want to issue the money or not. Other than that one issue, it is all a matter of macroeconomic analysis about how many people will want the bonds and what the money that is paid out will be worth in the future.
And that is why I have said that, for large countries with their own currencies, no one really cares what some credit agency says, because their macroeconomic analysis makes no sense, unless you take it as boilerplate pretend PR garbage designed to fool people who don’t know any macroeconomics.
And I think that is what it is. The macroecon stuff S and P says makes no sense. For example, their stated neutrality on balance of cuts and spending that are needed to bring economy into balance. What macro theory would be neutral on that in this situation? There is only one answer: None, no existing theory permits such a statement.
So, if a rentier bunch was playing a long game, and they know that they can do macro way better than S and P can, you want a downgrade. Because it probably won’t make much noticeable difference to the rates for the country’s treasury securities in the medium to long run. But it will be used as a bludgeon to smash down any uppity stimulus or government spending talk. Keeping the economic recovery skiddling sideways, which will do far more to keep interest rates low, and inflation low, than a downgrade.
Only question is if the credit agencies would be corrupt enough to go along. I leave the kind readers of this blog to decide.
Edit: by rentier class, I don;t mean old style rentiers who live off of interest payments. I mean the new US rentier class who live by fighting over bad paper mortgages and other securities, and live off government ‘extend and pretend’ policies to maintain the appearance of solvency, and who desperately want to avoid writing down the value of their assets. They need need need low and falling interest rates to keep the value of their bad paper up.
boss bitch
Elie
@jl:
My answer is ‘yes’ — without a doubt. This thing stinks like a dead whale.
Derf
@JGabriel: Clearly you know a lot about it.
JGabriel
@Derf: Clearly more than you.
.
PeakVT
@Jenny: Probably, but nobody here is keeping a rolodex with their names.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
I’m going to go back to the Washington Post article:
Without some explanation of the rationale, this is a misleading statement. The argument for not seizing the banks was only indirectly economic. It was that the US government did not have the legal authority to seize them, only the commercial banks that were a part of the large corporations, and not the portions where the real problems were. Because of that, any attempt to seize the banks would have been tied up indefinitely in the courts and would have failed to resolve anything.
ruemara
I’m sorry but Tucker’s Ice Cream in Alameda, a hand packed tri-flavour pint of Raspberry Sorbet, Chocolate Fantasy (hey, that could be my twitter handle) & Green Tea. Specially packed so it’s in thirds, not a set of layers. This way you get the chocolate, raspberry and green tea flavour in each spoonful. Haven’t had it in years and it still makes me drool just thinking about it.
Close second, Jayme’s Fat Face popsicles. I know it’s not ice cream, but her flavours are to die for, particularly Kaffir Lime & Avocado.
CatHairEverywhere
@jl: @JL- Moo Creamery is amazing. So many good flavors, including bacon. Are you in Bako? Have you tried Dewar’s? Peanut butter ice cream and a pound of chews, FTW!
jl
@67. CatHairEverywhere
No, not near Bakersfield, but travel through periodically to Southern California, or family in the vast SW of the Central Valley.
Dewar’s was my only regular stop, until Moo opened.
You know any good food in Bakersfield (other than the standard Basque food troughs), let me know. I go through there three or four times a year.
Anne Laurie
@burnspbesq: Kimball Farm. One scoop maple walnut (very few places get that one right), one scoop fresh peach if it’s available, or peppermint stick if it’s not. But bring a close friend along to help, ’cause the KF scoops are like a pint apiece.
The Spousal Unit, who is a supertaster and a traditionalist, speaks very highly of their black & white shakes, too also.
CatHairEverywhere
@jl: Flame and Skewer. Los Molcajetes. (a molcajete bowl is a must-have on a cold, foggy day) Luigi’s. Good barbecue at Fabious’s Corner on Chester. Toro Sushi for bento boxes at lunchtime. Thai Orchid. The Desi Cafe had great Indian food, but they closed recently. Large Indian population in Bako, so I am sure there will be a replacement soon. For higher-class food, try Valentien or Maxwell’s.
ericblair
Or I’m wondering if specific financial firms are playing games with credit swaps and getting S&P to downgrade US debt triggered mucho $$$. Who knows. It does seem odd that they’re insisting on downgrading the debt after the main threat has passed. You’d think the outlook has improved in the last week, not gotten worse.
I’d be happy if we as a country didn’t put legal weight on these ratings. They’re quite happy to argue in court they’re not legally accountable for their decisions: so, fine, if you’re arguing that you can call a debt instrument AAA, Bbb, or Mango Banana Supreme for whatever reason you want, great. Just leave the US government out of having to act on it.
Danny
So embarrassing, Anne. We will remain losers as long as people like you fail to get your shit together.
CatHairEverywhere
@jl:
Also, Tacos Los Salsas. Great little (tiny) taco place on Rosedale Hwy (Hwy 58) and Verdugo. Very fresh and authentic.
P.S. Can’t vouch for anything at Toro Sushi (on Coffee Rd.) except the bento boxes, as that’s all I’ve ever had. I’ve only gone there a couple of times. They are pretty basic- miso soup, salad, rice, teriyaki, CA roll, tempura or gyoza all beautifully presented and tasty.
some guy
burnsespq-hole
that’s why our tax dollars pay US Attorneys, tool. Let’s ignore what he did at AIG, let’s just talk about Lehman.
Valukas report implicating Geithner:http://lehmanreport.jenner.com/VOLUME%203.pdf
Valukas found a variety of colorable claims against ole Timmy.
***As Secretary Timothy Geithner explained to the Examiner, selling “sticky” assets at discounts could hurt Lehman by revealing to the market that Lehman “had a
lot of air in [its] marks” and thereby further draining confidence in the valuation of the
assets that remained on Lehman’s balance sheet.3188
***The Examiner described to Secretary Geithner how Lehman used Repo 105 transactions to remove approximately
$50 billion of liquid assets from the balance sheet at quarter‐end in 2008 and explained that this practice reduced Lehman’s net leverage.Secretary Geithner “did not recall being aware of” Lehman’s Repo 105 program, but stated: “If this had been a bank wewere supervising, that [i.e., Lehman’s Repo 105 program] would have been a huge issuefor the New York Fed.”3489
As Yves Smith pointed out, “It also emerges that the NY Fed, and thus Timothy Geithner, were at a minimum massively derelict in the performance of their duties, and may well be culpable in aiding and abetting Lehman in accounting fraud and Sarbox violations.” How culpable?I guess we will never really know, as we continue tyo look forward, right you tool?
jl
@73: CatHairEverywhere, thanks. I will check some of those out. If I stop at Dewar’s and Moo’s all the time, I’ll get too fat.
@71 ericblair: Stiglitz has some interesting things to say about the credit agencies, and their behavior in this column, wrt ECB and EU, that may be relevant. Stiglitz says that European governments have taken some actions to curb influence of US credit agencies. Maybe this is a little demonstration project by S and P to the US not to get any ideas…
I don’t follow the financial details in Europe enough to know what actions the Europe Stiglitz is talking about, but will try to remember to look for information.
A Contagion of Bad Ideas
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Project Syndicate
Aug 5,
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stiglitz141/English
“…one positive achievement by European leaders at the recent Brussels summit was to begin the process of reining in both the ECB and the power of the American ratings agencies.”
rikyrah
as someone who has NEVER been a fan of Geithner from day one..
he has to stay, because if he leaves, we won’t have anyone as Treasury Secretary. period.
if I thought the Rethugs in the Senate wouldn’t hold up a new nominee, I’d pack Timmy’s desk myself.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@some guy: You made a funny! I love this quote you pulled from:
Let’s take a look at some of the text around it.
That’s kind of important. You pulled the quote to make it look as if all there was was Geithner’s statement that he didn’t recall it. In fact, the very report you cite concluded that the government didn’t know.
However, the clinching one is Footnote 3489, the one that *you* included in your quote:
That’s right. The firm that you are claiming provides the smoking gun that Timothy Geithner was derelict in regulating is one that he didn’t have regulatory powers over. If you want to blame someone, blame Christopher Cox, the head of the SEC at the time.
Valukas did aim some criticism at the FRBNY over the collapse of Lehman, but he was categorical that the primary responsibility was the SEC’s.
It should be noted that this was about the time that Yves Smith credibility went completely into the crapper. My particular favorite was when she claimed that making firms trade derivatives on exchanges was a useless reform and that it pointed to the complicity of Congress and, particularly, the administration with the financial firms. This despite the fact that less than a year earlier, she had been writing posts about how moving derivatives to exchanges was *the* critical reform that was necessary to make.
Smith demonstrated repeatedly that she’s a hack.
bob h
I would have asked Sheila Bair, but she may be too open-minded to get Senate confirmation. Geithner is a hostage.
norbizness
I always wanted a Rumsfeld/Gonzalez of my very own.