Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary. The best article I could find.

[Imperialism Inc.]

I'd be interested to read any other articles people know of about Geithner.

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=c85b418b-5237-4f54-891f-8385243162bd

(snip)
Indeed, if not for Geithner's periodic assertiveness, the '90s might have looked very different. At Treasury, Geithner often cast the deciding vote between Rubin and Summers, who was Rubin's deputy through much of the Clinton era. Summers was a restless type, prone to intervening aggressively if there was a chance it could succeed. Rubin, on the other hand, deferred decisions as long as possible and erred on the side of caution even then. As Summers once explained to The New York Times, Rubin believed "that there is something worse than Country X going down, which is Country X going down and taking our credibility and $10 billion of our money with it.''

In this mix, Geithner often made action possible by setting Rubin's tortured soul at ease. When, for example, the collapse of the Korean financial system in 1997 triggered a global crisis, Summers recommended an overwhelming response--a U.S.-sponsored bailout on top of an accelerated IMF package worth tens of billions. But the idea gave Rubin agita. It was Geithner who, according to one colleague, nudged Treasury toward a successful middle ground. Summers himself viewed Geithner as such a crucial counterweight that, the following year, he helped make Geithner Treasury's top international official.

In recent weeks, another financial crisis has ushered Geithner and Summers onto center stage. Geithner has helped guide the government's response from his perch at the New York Fed; many see him as the most pragmatic voice in a trio that includes Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, two men skeptical of market interventions. "The idea that the Fed did as much as it did--with new facilities, new ideas--the breadth of it is stunning," says one former Fed official.

(snip)

Geithner generally gets high marks for his stewardship of the Fed over the last five years, particularly his longstanding calls for reforms that, in his words, would strengthen the system's "shock absorbers" and make it less prone to crises in the first place. Among other things, he has repeatedly urged greater transparency in the use of complicated financial instruments, like derivatives (essentially bets on the price movements of assets like stocks and bonds). And he has called for scrutiny of the way Wall Street creates and sells asset-based securities, which have generated huge losses in recent months.

(snip)

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. the market went up after the news

[Imperialism Inc.]

2. I understand he is well liked by people of all political persuasions.

I think he is certainly qualified, I'd just like to know a little more about him.

[aquart]

3. THANK YOU. Now I see why he was chosen.

[Imperialism Inc.]

4. Kick for more info on Geithner.

[Cha]

12. Well, here's some interesting info..

"Timothy Franz Geithner (last name pronounced /ˈgaɪtnər/; GITE-ner<1>; born August 18, 1961) is the 9th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In that role he also serves as Vice Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee."



<more>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_F._Geithner

Born the same year as Obama and another Leo:)

[slipslidingaway]

5. March 2007 speech...

http://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/speeches/2007/gei070323.html

Credit Markets Innovations and Their Implications

March 23, 2007

Timothy Geithner, President and Chief Executive Officer

At the 2007 Credit Markets Symposium hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Charlotte, North Carolina

"...The latest wave of credit market innovations has elicited some concerns about their implications for the stability of the financial system, concerns similar to those associated with earlier periods of rapid change in financial markets. Will the most recent credit market innovations amplify credit cycles, contributing to "excessive" lending in times of relative stability, and then magnify the contraction in credit that follows? Will they introduce greater volatility in financial markets? Will they create greater risk of systemic financial crisis?

These concerns have been heightened in some quarters by the problems currently being experienced in the subprime mortgage sector. It will take some time before the full implications are understood and the full impact can be assessed. As of now, though, there are few signs that the disruptions in this one sector of the credit markets will have a lasting impact on credit markets as a whole...


...In general, there does not seem to be strong empirical support for the proposition that derivatives increase volatility in financial markets. Volatility is not higher where derivatives are most prevalent...

...The stronger these shock absorbers, the more resilient markets will be in the face of future shocks, and the more confident we can be that banks will be a source of strength and of liquidity to markets in periods of stress and that the financial system will contribute to improved economic performance over time.

Thank you."

[slipslidingaway]

6. Group of Thirty...

http://www.group30.org/bios/members15.htm

"Timothy F. Geithner became the ninth president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on November 17, 2003. In that capacity, he serves as the vice chairman and a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, the group responsible for formulating the nation's monetary policy.

Mr. Geithner joined the Department of Treasury in 1988 and worked in three administrations for five Secretaries of the Treasury in a variety of positions. He served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs from 1999 to 2001 under Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.

He was director of the Policy Development and Review Department at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 until 2003. Before joining the Treasury, Mr. Geithner worked for Kissinger Associates, Inc.

...He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Group of Thirty; a member of the board of directors of the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.; a member of the board of trustees of the RAND Corporation; and a trustee of the Economic Club of New York..."

[slipslidingaway]

7. N.Y. Fed's Geithner explains Bear Stearns deal

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/new-york-fed-chief-geithners/story.aspx?guid=%7B9165450A-F288-45E9-B6BC-47CD1A57CB0E%7D

By MarketWatch
Last update: 12:03 p.m. EDT April 3, 2008Comments: 17WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- "Following is the text of remarks that Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, delivered Thursday before the Senate Banking Committee, as provided by the bank..."

[slipslidingaway]

8. Who is Timothy Geithner?

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/11/21/who-is-timothy-geithner/

"...Mr. Geithner has been at Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s side throughout the crisis. He’ll bring a deep familiarity with the government’s actions so far and an understanding of its authorities. He worked directly with top Treasury and FDIC officials throughout the crisis to create new government programs to backstop the faltering financial system. At Treasury starting in 1988, rising through the ranks to become an undersecretary in the Clinton administration, Mr. Geithner learned from Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers to keep options open and became a top official managing the international financial crisis in the late 1990s.

He took over the Federal Reserve Bank of New York five years ago, after working at the International Monetary Fund, without the traditional training of a Fed policy maker — a Ph.D. in economics. (His undergraduate degree, from Dartmouth College, is in government and Asian studies. He also has a master’s in international economics and East Asian studies from Johns Hopkins University.) So in his rare speeches after taking the top New York Fed post, he focused on risks to the financial system and the importance of addressing them.

His work clearly didn’t go far enough — and that may become one focus of his confirmation hearings. One of the Fed’s harshest critics, Sen. Jim Bunning (R., Ky.), earlier this year accused Mr. Geithner and other officials of missing “an awful lot of red flags” as regulators over the past decade. “Nobody was watching the store, so it was eventually going to happen,” he said at an April hearing after the Bear Stearns crisis.

Mr. Geithner argued that regulators have been taking action for years, trying to address the risks, but acknowledged that broader action would be necessary..."

[slipslidingaway]

9. Kick n/t

[Imperialism Inc.]

10. Thanks slipslidingaway.

He certainly seems to be a mixed bag. Some good some bad.

[slipslidingaway]

11. YW and yes he is, I keep thinking that the taxpayers are now one

of the shock absorbers.

:shrug: