Timothy Geithner - why is he still there ?

[Modelworks]

Why is he even in the position he is in ? Secretary of the Treasury ? Obama thinks he will help turn things around ? He doesn't care about the public , only about businesses.

In a 2004 speech here is what he said

The U.S. financial system is currently enjoying a period of considerable strength. Financial institutions
are strong. Financial innovation has spurred advances in risk management. Market practices
surrounding key products such as OTC derivatives have been strengthened. And the industry’s
payments infrastructure has been improved by additional safeguards and new clearing and settlement
arrangements.

The major financial institutions at the core of the system are profitable and well capitalized. The total
risk-based capital ratio for the ten largest U.S.-owned bank holding companies has averaged more
than 12 percent over the past two years, a slight increase relative to prevailing levels since the
mid-1990s. At year-end 2003, nearly every bank in the country met the regulatory standards to be
considered “well capitalized”, with fewer than 100 - representing less than 1 percent of banking
industry assets - failing to meet these standards.

Deregulation has enabled firms to better optimize the scale, geographic spread, and
scope of operations. The result has been the creation of some extremely large and diverse financial
institutions with high earnings capacity. In 2003, 18 U.S. bank holding companies and six securities
firms each earned more than $1 billion, with the five largest bank holding companies earning a
combined total of nearly $46 billion, over 40 percent of the banking industry total.

In concert with better risk modeling, securitization and credit derivatives have facilitated the dispersion
of credit risk across firms and across sectors of the financial system. These changes have led to
significant risk transfers within the banking system, as well as a net transfer of credit risk from
commercial banks to other financial intermediaries. As a result, we believe we are seeing a more
efficient risk allocation within the financial system as a whole, since risks can be transferred to firms
where they will diversify, rather than reinforce, risks arising from core businesses and to parts of the
financial system that are significantly less leveraged than banks and securities firms, such as
institutional investors and mutual funds.

One important example of this is the growth of the market for long-dated swaps, which are now used by banks to
hedge mortgage securities and whole loans. The notional value of long-dated interest rate derivatives
(those with maturities of more than 5 years) has more than tripled since the end of 1998, considerably
faster growth than for comparable shorter-dated instruments. The growth of these markets reflects a
very substantial increase in hedging capacity, and this “wider pipeline” seems likely to facilitate the
ease with which the market adjusts in conditions of stress.

 

[soundforbjt]

Do you think anyone cares about "The People"? Where have you been for the last 200+ years?

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Fucking magnets... How do they work?!

 

[MotF Bane]

Do you think anyone cares about "The People"? Where have you been for the last 200+ years?

Not alive yet.

 

[Generator]

He's Obama's chaperon.

 

[Darwin333]

new boss same as the old boss

 

[boomerang]

Geithner is dumber than a box of rocks, but unfortunately, within the Obama administration, he's a genius. He's one of just a few with any experience other than solely in academia or politics.

The fact that nearly every decision he's ever made is wrong is evidently of no consequence because after all, he's the smartest one on the team.

Plus, it's become a national trend for the very same people that got us into trouble to get us out. As if their mindset somehow changes.

 

[marincounty]

Yeah, I sure wish we could have all of those geniuses from the GW Bush administration.

Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson, Jr. (born March 28, 1946) served as the 74th United States Treasury Secretary. He previously served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs.
Paulson has personally built close relations with China during his career. In July 2008, The Daily Telegraph reported "Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has intimate relations with the Chinese elite, dating from his days at Goldman Sachs when he visited the country more than 70 times."[12]

Paulson was known to have persuaded President George W. Bush to allow him to spearhead U.S.-China relations and initiated and led the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, a forum and mechanism under which the two countries addressed global areas of immediate and long-term strategic and economic interest.

In Spring 2007, Secretary Paulson told an audience at the Shanghai Futures Exchange that "An open, competitive, and liberalized financial market can effectively allocate scarce resources in a manner that promotes stability and prosperity far better than governmental intervention."[19]

In August 2007, Secretary Paulson explained that U.S. subprime mortgage fallout remained largely contained due to the strongest global economy in decades.[20]

On July 20, 2008, after the failure of Indymac Bank, Paulson reassured the public by saying, “it's a safe banking system, a sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it. This is a very manageable situation.”[21]

On August 10, 2008, Secretary Paulson told NBC’s Meet the Press that he had no plans to inject any capital into Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.[22] On September 7, 2008, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went into conservatorship.[23]


His compensation package, according to reports, was US$37 million in 2005, and $16.4 million projected for 2006.[10] His net worth has been estimated at over $700 million.[10]

 

[nick1985]

snip

I'm sold! Bush's financial people sucked!

Ok now how do you feel about this Geithner dolt?

 

[Red Dawn]

I'm sold! Bush's financial people sucked!

Ok now how do you feel about this Geithner dolt?

Actually I don't think there's a person in this country that could fix the mess we're in.

 

[MovingTarget]

http://www.khanacademy.org/?video=geithner-plan-i#Geithner%20Plan

 

[nick1985]

Actually I don't think there's a person in this country that could fix the mess we're in.

Agreed. Although I do like Paul Ryan's roadmap more and more

 

[werepossum]

Guy doesn't pay his taxes - even though he was informed both by letter and by interview that he had to pay these taxes, agreed in writing to pay these taxes, was reimbursed by his employer for the taxes - and BOTH parties agree he's the only man to run Treasury? Shows the mess we're in.

Only in Clinton's day, politicians still had some small sense of shame. A Justice nominee found to have used illegal alien labor would withdraw or, failing that, be defeated by landslide. That sense of shame has turned into a sense of entitlement. We're developing our class of Mandarins.