CNBC Reports: Tim Geithner Is 'Probably' Out

[davidinalameda]

don't know if this has been posted-if so, mea culpa



Fresh off a very enjoyable launch party for his new NetNet blog on CNBC's Web site—where, incidentally, Felix Salmon could be seen chatting happily with Herb Greenberg, the hedge fund manager Jim Chanos brought a statuesque blonde companion, and Joe Weisenthal was the only one wearing sneakers—John Carney has one of the most interesting items of the day.

His post "Geithner Is Toast After Midterm Elections," was published early this afternoon. Considering this week's news of Larry Summers' and Herb Allison's departures, not to mention Obama's line on Monday about Mr. Geithner's "whole range of decisions about family that'll factor in," a reader could be forgiven for thinking this was a scoop about the end of the Treasury Secretary's tenure.

Instead, the item was just a little think piece that offered the idea that if the Democrats lose either the Senate or the House, then President Obama's economic policies will be blamed, and then "Geithner will be the official fall guy."

http://www.observer.com/2010/wall-street/cnbc-reports-tim-geithner-probably-out?utm_source=observer&utm_medium=internal_links&utm_campaign=slider

[DFLforever]

1. He's been the fall guy and the scapegoat from the

get go, hasn't he? This would just make it official.

[marmar]

2. It's hard to view a shameless Wall Street whore as a scapegoat.

nt

[DFLforever]

6. Um. I think you proved my point.

:P

[sendero]

12. Please don't..

.. give the 3 dimensional chess bullshit any creedence. Obama would have never picked this idiot if he could do better than checkers.

[davidinalameda]

34. Obama didn't do the best job at picking people

for governmental position in general

[Warren Stupidity]

4. He took care of his own

and will be heading right back to where he came from.

[Recursion]

16. The New York Fed? NT

Isn't he the one that told a joke about working for Goldman that morphed into a widespread belief that he did?

[PoliticAverse]

25. Apparently it was an assistant that made the joke....

At Treasury, Geithner Struggles to Escape a Past He Never Had:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/business/20tax.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytime

[depakid]

5. When one makes remarkably poor policy choices, the accurate word is accountability

Unfortunately that's become a word (and concept) to be avoided word in some circles these days.

[sendero]

10. He's not a scapegoat..

... he is a goat.

[northernlights]

29. look, they may stink, they may be troublemakers on

4 legs and a royal pain in the butt, but why do you feel the need to insult goats? After all, they mean well...:cry:

[sendero]

30. I'm sorry..

... I actually like goats. And technically, I am one and so is my wife.

They do keep the mowing to a minimum and what else will actually eat poison ivy?

[northernlights]

33. I like them too

I miss my pygmy Pia (pain-in-ass), although not so much the havoc she wreaked near the end, attempting to girdle the entire orchard and succeeding in killing a formerly healthy peach tree, as her final act). :D

Aaah, my mother and one sister are also goats, but I won't hold that against you...;)

[MannyGoldstein]

18. Did he not bail out AIG counterparties @ 100% with our tax dollars?

Did he not oppose Warren? Was he not a protoge of Kissinger?

Etc.

[TheWraith]

19. No, no, and no.

AIG was bailed out before the election. Geithner publicly supported Warren. And he was/is not a protege of Kissinger. Try rechecking your "facts."

[TacticalPeek]

20. AIG was bailed out by the Fed. Who was the head of the NY Fed at the time?

Geithner, Paulson defend $182 billion AIG bailout
Lawmakers grill Geithner and Paulson for failing to obtain taxpayer concession

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/geithner-paulson-defend-182-bln-aig-bailout-2010-01-27

Yet the Fed was strangely passive and compliant when it came to demanding cooperation and sacrifice from the largest financial institutions. Timothy Geithner was then president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the lead regulator of Wall Street’s largest banks. He briefly insisted they must accept the burden of rescuing AIG. But the bankers called his bluff and blew him off—and Geithner deferred to their wishes. The taxpayer bailout followed. The episode is relevant to the future, because Geithner is now Obama’s Treasury Secretary and in charge of preventing the next taxpayer bailout.
...
The public wasn’t ever told the banks were asked to do their part. Nor did Federal Reserve officials argue with the decision or try to apply persuasive pressures. It did not put the squeeze on to convince the bankers they must accept some kind of sacrifice in the interest of sharing the pain. Nor did Geithner threaten to pursue an alternative strategy that could have forced the banks to negotiate the terms. This was considered out of the question, though the central bank has employed all these tools on past occasions.

http://www.thenation.com/article/153929/aig-bailout-scandal?page=0,0

Particularly odious (and telling) was how Geithner paid them 100 taxpayer cents on the dollar.

[PoliticAverse]

22. They paid full price for junk

"Particularly odious (and telling) was how Geithner paid them 100 taxpayer cents on the dollar"

That was an incredible gift to the investment banks that were largely responsible for the mess:

The Real AIG Scandal: http://www.slate.com/id/2213942/

[sendero]

31. That's the problem with this country..

.. most people are too business-illiterate to understand what an egregious abuse of the taxpayer this deal was. It was literally a hundreds of billions of dollars GIVEAWAY from our treasury. There was NO BUSINESS REASON, AND NO BUSINESS WOULD HAVE DONE IT, to pay 100% of these shady obligations. It was a GS bailout pure and simple.

The people involved should be in jail much less serving a cabinet position. This (the selection of the criminal Geithner) was my first clue that Obama was bought or clueless.

[Toots]

36. Just remember how adamant they were in proclaiming "Main Street..NOT Wall Street"

Nice sound bite but complete bullshit from the very beginning..

[MannyGoldstein]

44. Amazingly, the counterparties had already agreed to steep discounts

But few things are more generous than Geithner handing taxpayer dollars to bankers.

[TheWraith]

39. The NY Fed doesn't run the US Government. Propaganda fail. nt

[PoliticAverse]

45. Truth will out...

"Behind the scenes, Mr. Geithner was the point person for weeks of sleep-deprived Bailout Weekends. It was Mr. Geithner, not Mr. Paulson, for example, who put together the original rescue plan for the American International Group."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/business/25sorkin.htm...

[PoliticAverse]

23. Publically supported Warren, privately opposed?

"Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has expressed opposition to the possible nomination of Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a source with knowledge of Geithner's views"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/15/tim-geithner-opposes-nomi_n_647691.html

Elizabeth Warren vs. Timothy Geithner: A Big Decision for Obama:

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-72/2474-elizabeth-warren-vs-timothy-geithner

[PoliticAverse]

24. Geithner and Kissinger

Geithner's first job out of college was at Kissinger Associates where he worked for about 3 years.

http://dollarsandsense.org/blog/2008/11/geithner-and-kissinger-associates-pt-1.html

[MannyGoldstein]

32. Well... one of us needs to check facts nt

[TheWraith]

41. Yes, you do. nt

[girl gone mad]

37. Manny's facts are right.

Geithner did play a key role in the AIG fiasco.

He did get his start working for Kissinger, though I would call him more of a protege of Rubin and Summers.

It was widely reported that sources close to Geithner said he was very openly opposed to Warren being appointed to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Remember, Geithner's Treasury dept. unsuccessfully tried to remove Warren from the Congressional Oversight Panel in the early days of this administration. No love lost there.

[TheWraith]

40. No, they're not.

Please cite Geithner's role in passing the bailout through Congress from his seat on the NY Fed.

He worked for Kissenger Associates for three years in the 1980s; to equate being a low level employee of someone's consulting firm with being their protege is beyond ridiculous.

And yes, completely anonymous sources directly contradicted by public statements say that. So, we're going on faith-based information.

[MannyGoldstein]

43. Geithner bailed out AIG and tried to cover it up

Geithner bailed out AIG: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/federal-probe-is-launched-into-aigs-payouts-2010-01-26

tried to cover it up: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aXIvW4igKV38

and got called on it by Warren: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz7ruJw6byQ

[PoliticAverse]

21. Geithner put the AIG rescue plan together

"Behind the scenes, Mr. Geithner was the point person for weeks of sleep-deprived Bailout Weekends. It was Mr. Geithner, not Mr. Paulson, for example, who put together the original rescue plan for the American International Group."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/business/25sorkin.html?_r=1

[Cowpunk]

42. This is just based on a pundit prediction.

I've been making the same observation for months.

The parallels with Donald Rumsfeld(he "resigned" two days after the '06 election) are becoming obvious.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Good riddance.

They lead this administration into a mid term disaster while taking care of their friends. Rahm et al: worthless clueless idiots.

[Lost-in-FL]

7. It is a disgrace that it took this long for this to happen. nt

[xchrom]

8. Gee I hope the door doesn't bruise his ass too much. Nt

[sendero]

9. He should have never been IN..

... he's part of the problem he can never be part of the solution.

[Safetykitten]

11. His work is done. All money that could be shoveled to his pals has been shoveled.

Him and the gang will laugh it up after Obama is out in 2012. Or better yet have a book deal and a good laugh.

[littlewolf]

13. ! that

[Bluebear]

27. you said it

[chimpymustgo]

35. You said it. The cupboard is bare.

[Ramulux]

14. Holy shit

If you had told me a month ago that David Axelrod, Rahm Emmanual, Larry Summers, Peter Orszag, and Tim Geithner would be gone by next year, I wouldn't believe you. Its pretty amazing that all the worst elements of Obamas administration are leaving. Now if only he would appoint people who actually know what they are doing.

[Safetykitten]

15. Most likely after the November election we will see some moderate republicans added to his staff.

[flyarm]

17. we already had them, but they were hardly moderate! Geithner was a

Kissinger protoge!

[JDPriestly]

26. Geithner, on a personal level, is probably a nice guy.

But he has not inspired confidence. He is just not strong enough to do the job he is supposed to do -- and he is too much in the control of the banks. Also, he was too closely involved in the decisions leading up to economic crisis.

Obama needs an all-new team. But if he just replaces old bank cronies with new bank cronies, it won't make much difference. He should balance his team. Some of the team should be close to the banking community and the business community, and some should be academics with other points of view. When it comes to economic decisions, a few independent thinkers can be a big help.

[democracy1st]

28. he's a con man!

[earth mom]

38. Maybe there is a god! Can't wait to see that BANKSTER HO gone!

:woohoo: