Treasury Secretary: Tim Geithner

[Tender Branson]

President-elect Barack Obama plans to announce his economic team on Monday as part of an effort to reassure markets and will name New York Fed President Tim Geithner his nominee for Treasury Secretary, NBC News has learned.



Geithner was a U.S. Treasury Department official under both Bob Rubin and Larry Summers and has been with Treasury since 1988. Geithner's nomination is anticipated barring last-minute changes, NBC reported.

Geithner has helped current Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and his team manage the ongoing Wall Street bailout.

Obama also is expected to tap New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as U.S. secretary of commerce, NBC News said on Friday.

Richardson, a former United Nations ambassador and energy secretary during President Bill Clinton's administration, had been an early supporter of Obama after dropping his own presidential ambitions.

Private sector economists generally applauded Geithner's nomination, saying he had performed well during the financial crisis, but some questioned his overall experience.

"I would say the market is going to like it," said James Awad, managing director of Zephyr Capital. "[Former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry] Summers was more controversial. People will view it as a safe choice, an experienced guy.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27844707

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

WHAT A HORRIBLE CHOICE!!!  Isn't this the genius that refused to bail out Lehman Brothers which kick-off the whole market meltdown?

[Beet]

Pretty much expected. Clever timing on the announcement though. Now the endangered banks have 60-70 hours to figure out a game plan for next week.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Pretty much expected. Clever timing on the announcement though. Now the endangered banks have 60-70 hours to figure out a game plan for next week.

huh?

As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank since Oct 2003, it was Tim Geithner's job to regulate the banks, and we can see how that went.  Then, in mid Sept 2008, it was HIS decision to let Lehman fail even though it was too big to fail without bringing down the whole banking system.

And now this guy is going to be Treasury Secretary?!

[Beet]

Pretty much expected. Clever timing on the announcement though. Now the endangered banks have 60-70 hours to figure out a game plan for next week.

huh?

As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank since Oct 2003, it was Tim Geithner's job to regulate the banks, and we can see how that went.  Then, in mid Sept 2008, it was HIS decision to let Lehman fail even though it was too big to fail without bringing down the whole banking system.

And now this guy is going to be Treasury Secretary?!

So he f'ed up, but who didn't? Did you expect Obama to appoint Jim Grant as Treasury Secretary?

[Verily]

Pretty much expected. Clever timing on the announcement though. Now the endangered banks have 60-70 hours to figure out a game plan for next week.

huh?

As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank since Oct 2003, it was Tim Geithner's job to regulate the banks, and we can see how that went.  Then, in mid Sept 2008, it was HIS decision to let Lehman fail even though it was too big to fail without bringing down the whole banking system.

And now this guy is going to be Treasury Secretary?!

While Lehman Brothers was the first bank to fail, it was not a catalyst for other banks to fail. And, in retrospect, letting it fail was the correct decision.

Edit: Well, Bear Stearns was the first bank to fail. Same difference.

[King]

AIG was the catalyst for the meltdown.  Bear, IndyMac and Lehman and were hits our market was capable of absorbing.  AIG was a giant.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Pretty much expected. Clever timing on the announcement though. Now the endangered banks have 60-70 hours to figure out a game plan for next week.

huh?

As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank since Oct 2003, it was Tim Geithner's job to regulate the banks, and we can see how that went.  Then, in mid Sept 2008, it was HIS decision to let Lehman fail even though it was too big to fail without bringing down the whole banking system.

And now this guy is going to be Treasury Secretary?!

While Lehman Brothers was the first bank to fail, it was not a catalyst for other banks to fail. And, in retrospect, letting it fail was the correct decision.

Letting Lehman fail over the weekend of Sep13-14th was the single biggest mistake of this whole sad affair.  There were trillions of dollars of credit default swaps exposure tied to Lehman that were held by other institutions, and Lehman's failure guaranteed a lot of other firms would go belly up.

Tim Geithner's decision over that weekend literally cost us Trillions of dollars.

How you call that "the right decision" is beyond me.  This guy is incompetent and is the very last member of the current Bush/Fed group that you would want as Treasury Secretary.  In fact, Obama should NOT appoint any current member of the Bush/Fed band of incompetents to any capacity within the new administration.

[Beet]

Pretty much expected. Clever timing on the announcement though. Now the endangered banks have 60-70 hours to figure out a game plan for next week.

huh?

As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank since Oct 2003, it was Tim Geithner's job to regulate the banks, and we can see how that went.  Then, in mid Sept 2008, it was HIS decision to let Lehman fail even though it was too big to fail without bringing down the whole banking system.

And now this guy is going to be Treasury Secretary?!

While Lehman Brothers was the first bank to fail, it was not a catalyst for other banks to fail. And, in retrospect, letting it fail was the correct decision.

Letting Lehman fail over the weekend of Sep13-14th was the single biggest mistake of this whole sad affair.  There were trillions of dollars of credit default swaps exposure tied to Lehman that were held by other institutions, and Lehman's failure guaranteed a lot of other firms would go belly up.

Tim Geithner's decision over that weekend literally cost us Trillions of dollars.

How you call that "the right decision" is beyond me.  This guy is incompetent and is the very last member of the current Bush/Fed group that you would want as Treasury Secretary.  In fact, Obama should NOT appoint any current member of the Bush/Fed band of incompetents to any capacity within the new administration.

Correct. There are different cases to be made about whether Lehman's failure was good or bad in the long run. The "good" side generally relies on the notion that the asset deflation underlying our problems was so bad that it was better for the pain to come earlier, so that policymakers could realize how serious the problem was-- if it had not failed all at once, the pain would have come slowly and gradually. In this line a dramatic failure "woke up" the government and the public to take drastic action.

However, I tend to agree with this analysis:

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And this:

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To the extent that Geithner was involved in the decision to allow Lehman to fail, the subsequent attempts to take the blame off the Treasury by claiming that (1) they tried to save Lehman, but couldn't get a private buyer even with government support (2) they would have saved Lehman, but it was illegal, and the poorly thought out original TARP proposal to buy banks' bad assets instead of direct capital infusions into banks, he was involved in a large number of mistakes.

Sometimes to fix something you need to  bring in someone with an outside perspective. So why Geithner? One reason may be that Obama is in way over his head, and has no choice but to listen to the "smart people" e.g. Summers, Paulson, Bernake, etc. who are all telling him Geithner. If you don't know what you're doing, go with the safe choice.

[Lunar]

WHAT A HORRIBLE CHOICE!!!  Isn't this the genius that refused to bail out Lehman Brothers which kick-off the whole market meltdown?

Are you going to continue to hyperventilate for every single cabinet appointment the man makes?

[Flying Dog]

WHAT A HORRIBLE CHOICE!!!  Isn't this the genius that refused to bail out Lehman Brothers which kick-off the whole market meltdown?

Are you going to continue to hyperventilate for every single cabinet appointment the man makes?

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

WHAT A HORRIBLE CHOICE!!!  Isn't this the genius that refused to bail out Lehman Brothers which kick-off the whole market meltdown?

Are you going to continue to hyperventilate for every single cabinet appointment the man makes?

if he had picked FDIC's Sheila Blair, who was also rumored to be on Obama's shortlist, I'd be doing cartwheels. Sheila Blair is someone who can think outside of what they taught her in school, who understands you can't just follow the textbooks as if every realworld situation has a predefined solution driven by ideology.

The very worst thing to have is some academic ideologue who can't think outside of the box in a real fast-moving crises, and unfortunately that's EXACTLY what we've had with Geithner/Paulson/Bernanke/Poole.

[paul718]

if he had picked FDIC's Sheila Blair, who was also rumored to be on Obama's shortlist, I'd be doing cartwheels. Sheila Blair is someone who can think outside of what they taught her in school, who understands you can't just follow the textbooks as if every realworld situation has a predefined solution driven by ideology.

Bair

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

if he had picked FDIC's Sheila Blair, who was also rumored to be on Obama's shortlist, I'd be doing cartwheels. Sheila Blair is someone who can think outside of what they taught her in school, who understands you can't just follow the textbooks as if every realworld situation has a predefined solution driven by ideology.

Bair

no wonder why I was having trouble googling her.

Anyway, this lady has been ahead of the curve of this crises for over a year, while Geithner and the others have been behind the curve and way too conservative.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Pretty much expected. Clever timing on the announcement though. Now the endangered banks have 60-70 hours to figure out a game plan for next week.

huh?

As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank since Oct 2003, it was Tim Geithner's job to regulate the banks, and we can see how that went.  Then, in mid Sept 2008, it was HIS decision to let Lehman fail even though it was too big to fail without bringing down the whole banking system.

And now this guy is going to be Treasury Secretary?!

ooops!  Now it comes out that Geithner failed to pay taxes totally $34k from 2001 thru 2004, and has recently had to pay other sums of unpaid taxes immediately prior to his nomination...and this guy is going to run the Treasury?!

[Bacon King]

Pretty much expected. Clever timing on the announcement though. Now the endangered banks have 60-70 hours to figure out a game plan for next week.

huh?

As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank since Oct 2003, it was Tim Geithner's job to regulate the banks, and we can see how that went.  Then, in mid Sept 2008, it was HIS decision to let Lehman fail even though it was too big to fail without bringing down the whole banking system.

And now this guy is going to be Treasury Secretary?!

ooops!  Now it comes out that Geithner failed to pay taxes totally $34k from 2001 thru 2004, and has recently had to pay other sums of unpaid taxes immediately prior to his nomination...and this guy is going to run the Treasury?!

D:

how does someone get away with not paying their taxes when they're the head of a freakin' regional fed bank?



edit. okay, it was while he was working for the IMF, he was technically self-employed somehow, so he had to pay payroll taxes on himself both as an employee and employer (which seems kind of silly- I didn't know people had to do that) but he didn't do both. Apparently as soon as the IRS pointed it out he paid them back with interest.

So, not quite as bad as it first sounded. Possibly even a misunderstanding?

source:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123187503629378119.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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[Sam Spade]

Sounds like the perfect guy to succeed Paulson.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Pretty much expected. Clever timing on the announcement though. Now the endangered banks have 60-70 hours to figure out a game plan for next week.

huh?

As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank since Oct 2003, it was Tim Geithner's job to regulate the banks, and we can see how that went.  Then, in mid Sept 2008, it was HIS decision to let Lehman fail even though it was too big to fail without bringing down the whole banking system.

And now this guy is going to be Treasury Secretary?!

ooops!  Now it comes out that Geithner failed to pay taxes totally $34k from 2001 thru 2004, and has recently had to pay other sums of unpaid taxes immediately prior to his nomination...and this guy is going to run the Treasury?!

D:

how does someone get away with not paying their taxes when they're the head of a freakin' regional fed bank?



edit. okay, it was while he was working for the IMF, he was technically self-employed somehow, so he had to pay payroll taxes on himself both as an employee and employer (which seems kind of silly- I didn't know people had to do that) but he didn't do both. Apparently as soon as the IRS pointed it out he paid them back with interest.

So, not quite as bad as it first sounded. Possibly even a misunderstanding?

source:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123187503629378119.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

You must be logged in to read this quote.

every dba or self-incorportated person knows you have to pay both sides of Social Security, it is clearly spelled out in Schedule SE.  The fact that didn't know the mere basics of the tax code while working for the IMF is shocking.

[Holmes]

Regardless, anything is an improvement to Paulson.

[Sam Spade]

Regardless, anything is an improvement to Paulson.

Geithner is different from Paulson, how

(other than Paulson may know how to report his taxes correctly)

[Sam Spade]

Pretty much expected. Clever timing on the announcement though. Now the endangered banks have 60-70 hours to figure out a game plan for next week.

huh?

As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank since Oct 2003, it was Tim Geithner's job to regulate the banks, and we can see how that went.  Then, in mid Sept 2008, it was HIS decision to let Lehman fail even though it was too big to fail without bringing down the whole banking system.

And now this guy is going to be Treasury Secretary?!

ooops!  Now it comes out that Geithner failed to pay taxes totally $34k from 2001 thru 2004, and has recently had to pay other sums of unpaid taxes immediately prior to his nomination...and this guy is going to run the Treasury?!

D:

how does someone get away with not paying their taxes when they're the head of a freakin' regional fed bank?



edit. okay, it was while he was working for the IMF, he was technically self-employed somehow, so he had to pay payroll taxes on himself both as an employee and employer (which seems kind of silly- I didn't know people had to do that) but he didn't do both. Apparently as soon as the IRS pointed it out he paid them back with interest.

So, not quite as bad as it first sounded. Possibly even a misunderstanding?

source:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123187503629378119.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

You must be logged in to read this quote.

every dba or self-incorportated person knows you have to pay both sides of Social Security, it is clearly spelled out in Schedule SE.  The fact that didn't know the mere basics of the tax code while working for the IMF is shocking predictable.

Corrected.