Is anyone really surprised that tax-cheat and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has chosen to remain at Treasury for the rest of Wonderboy's term?
Friday's S&P downgrade of US credit from AAA to AA+ is probably not the note on which Geithner wants to end his Treasury career. To leave now would provide an air of, well, resignation. An admission of defeat.
Then there's the little matter of his replacement.
Sure, pundits were favoring Jamie Dimon to be Geithner's replacement. But, with Wonderboy's recent bumbling of the debt limit talks, and falling poll numbers with just a year and change to go before the 2012 election, does Dimon want to trade a fairly safe career as Chase CEO for as long as he wants for what could well be a one-year, highly-politicized tour at Treasury? Wouldn't the same be true for anyone in the financial community who is unsullied by the recent crisis, but smart enough to read the Tea (Party) leaves?
Face it, whoever follows Geithner, who was never more than a financial plumber by experience, will only be even more of a hack than he was. It's damage control time at Treasury with what will be, after confirmation of Geithner's replacement, just about 12 months to go before the election. And his/her prospects for a longer career than one year are highly in doubt.
So that left the administration with the possibility of an Undersecretary filling in for Geithner as it desperately tried to find someone respectable, or at least adequate, and potentially didn't succeed.
Can you imagine the US going without a Treasury Secretary for several months right after the nation's first credit downgrade?
My guess is that it was made clear to Geithner that his life after Treasury would be as nightmarish as Wonderboy and his allies could make it, should he unwisely desert the ship of state in its hour of need.
Showing posts with label Treasury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Treasury. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tim Geithner's Many Hats
We all have read how thinly-staffed tax cheat Tim Geithner's Treasury Department remains.
Between the administration's belated attention to not hiring tax scofflaws, and experienced candidates' wariness of rules governing their subsequent employment, Geithner is evidently having trouble recruiting any competent talent to help him with Wonderboy's growing list of 'banks,' bailouts and other dodgy financial schemes.
A Washington-based friend told me that, as a result, Geithner has been forced to wear many hats.
Allegedly, one day earlier this week, as my friend paid a visit to the Treasury building, Geithner was at the reception desk, printing his visitor's pass. Later, when the friend and his colleague headed to the Treasury commissary, Geithner was manning one of the cash registers.
Word has it that, during their union-mandated coffee breaks, the mint's printers are spelled by the Treasury Secretary himself. He's been reported to have complained, under his breath,
'When I took this job, I was told it would eventually lead to me 'almost printing money.' I didn't realize he meant it literally, and this soon.'
Without a complete staff to assist him, Geithner puts in long hours in the Treasury building. Thus, it's also been rumored that he's been seen signing visitors and employees out late at night, while manually signing large sheets of dollar bills.
Of course, the good news is, with Tim busy doing so many valuable jobs at Treasury, he'll have less time to meddle in truly value-destroying work like providing details for more intrusion into the commercial bank sector, paying off delinquent mortgages with taxpayer money, or 'stress testing' the nation's banks.
Between the administration's belated attention to not hiring tax scofflaws, and experienced candidates' wariness of rules governing their subsequent employment, Geithner is evidently having trouble recruiting any competent talent to help him with Wonderboy's growing list of 'banks,' bailouts and other dodgy financial schemes.
A Washington-based friend told me that, as a result, Geithner has been forced to wear many hats.
Allegedly, one day earlier this week, as my friend paid a visit to the Treasury building, Geithner was at the reception desk, printing his visitor's pass. Later, when the friend and his colleague headed to the Treasury commissary, Geithner was manning one of the cash registers.
Word has it that, during their union-mandated coffee breaks, the mint's printers are spelled by the Treasury Secretary himself. He's been reported to have complained, under his breath,
'When I took this job, I was told it would eventually lead to me 'almost printing money.' I didn't realize he meant it literally, and this soon.'
Without a complete staff to assist him, Geithner puts in long hours in the Treasury building. Thus, it's also been rumored that he's been seen signing visitors and employees out late at night, while manually signing large sheets of dollar bills.
Of course, the good news is, with Tim busy doing so many valuable jobs at Treasury, he'll have less time to meddle in truly value-destroying work like providing details for more intrusion into the commercial bank sector, paying off delinquent mortgages with taxpayer money, or 'stress testing' the nation's banks.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Geithner's Disappointing Plan & Testimony
Watching Tax Cheat Tim Geithner testify before Congress yesterday was a supreme disappointment.
Can this guy be the same one as the one about whom I wrote in this post? The one Paul Volcker swore is the only guy in the country who can function as Treasury Secretary?
Larry Kudlow was right. Geithner took months to come up with....what? A modified version of Bill Seidman's 'bad bank' RTC of twenty years ago?
Surely, for all the fuss made over Geithner's brilliance, we are right to have expected much, much more from him.
As I have felt all along, Geithner seems to be just an operator, rather than a Treasury Secretary with foresight and vision. Not that Hank Paulson was so much better during the crisis of last year. But he did at least articulate a revamping of financial regulatory authorities that made some sense.
In a measure of how disappointed investors were in Geithner's so-called "plan," the S&P500 plunged nearly 43 points, or almost 5%.
Nice job, Tim.
Of course, the $64,000 question- or, in the age of Wonderboy, is that now the $64B question- is how and at what price impaired assets will be sold into the public-private trust? Geithner hasn't answered that.
Neither did he provide any estimate of the total cost of his new plan, when asked by a GOP Senator. He sort of punted, admitting it was important to know the total cost to taxpayers, but also admitting he had no idea.
This is change we want, eh?
I don't think so. I think we're in serious trouble, getting deeper as Wonderboy's Tax Cheat continues to be overwhelmed by his job at Treasury.
Can this guy be the same one as the one about whom I wrote in this post? The one Paul Volcker swore is the only guy in the country who can function as Treasury Secretary?
Larry Kudlow was right. Geithner took months to come up with....what? A modified version of Bill Seidman's 'bad bank' RTC of twenty years ago?
Surely, for all the fuss made over Geithner's brilliance, we are right to have expected much, much more from him.
As I have felt all along, Geithner seems to be just an operator, rather than a Treasury Secretary with foresight and vision. Not that Hank Paulson was so much better during the crisis of last year. But he did at least articulate a revamping of financial regulatory authorities that made some sense.
In a measure of how disappointed investors were in Geithner's so-called "plan," the S&P500 plunged nearly 43 points, or almost 5%.
Nice job, Tim.
Of course, the $64,000 question- or, in the age of Wonderboy, is that now the $64B question- is how and at what price impaired assets will be sold into the public-private trust? Geithner hasn't answered that.
Neither did he provide any estimate of the total cost of his new plan, when asked by a GOP Senator. He sort of punted, admitting it was important to know the total cost to taxpayers, but also admitting he had no idea.
This is change we want, eh?
I don't think so. I think we're in serious trouble, getting deeper as Wonderboy's Tax Cheat continues to be overwhelmed by his job at Treasury.
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