Tim Geithner. Scapegoat.

[Avalux]

I feel bad for him. He clearly walked into a mess that his predecessor made. Expectations have been enormous and frankly; he'd have to be better than Obama to make people (that means you, Democrats) happy.

I am tired of the criticism of this man. Does everyone realize exactly what he's been tasked to do and that he's being blamed for decisions over which he had no control?

Give the man a god-damned chance before calling for his head. Big picture.

[MarjorieG]

1. Agree.

[CreekDog]

2. He's been made into a villain

accused of everything under the sun.

i don't see the villainy. perhaps his approaches are wrong, but i think people are expecting his ideas to fix problems they were never intended to fix. his approaches are only to buy time and stave off disaster for a little while longer.

the real, long term solutions will take time to develop and implement --they are not the focus now. heck they aren't ready yet, much less introduced or passed by congress.

[EFerrari]

5. What were your utility bills like in 2001?

[CreekDog]

9. about the same as now

i was in the Bay Area then also.

[EFerrari]

18. I was in Santa Monica having rolling brown outs while Tim

was on his Dump Davis Tour.

[Avalux]

3. kick! Where's the love for Geithner??

;)

[EFerrari]

4. I guess Enron stole that too.

Do you guys know who you are cheerleading for?

[Avalux]

6. I'm not cheerleading.

Would rather clear heads and reason prevail over hysteria is all. Lots of hysteria going on right now.

[EFerrari]

8. I'm with you there. But, why is the default "love"?

This guy is not a newbie to this game.

[Avalux]

13. Did you see my winking smilie?

Was just being light. I don't expect anyone to love Geithner and I am not sure I trust him but I do think he deserves a chance; I am reserving judgement right now.

[CreekDog]

7. who is cheerleading?

just saying he's not Methusela.

:banghead:

[OmahaBlueDog]

10. He may be a really skilled technician, but his PR skills don't inspire confidence

Is it his fault? No more than a team's poor performance is most baseball manager's fault, and yet they get fired.

In the final analysis, Obama is going to have to bring someone in with not just know-how, but a real ability to inspire confidence, sound like he/she has a plan, and someone who can deliver the message that it's- going-to-Hell-now-but-it-will-be-OK. Regretabbly, Warren Buffet won't take the gig.

[uponit7771]

11. He's not the most capable just the least dishonest

[Clio the Leo]

12. Barack Obama chose him. That should be the end of the argument.

You doubt Geithner, you doubt the President. End of story.

[Phx_Dem]

14. Yep, But the Pres is having none of it!

[amandabeech]

15. I didn't support Geithner's nomination based on his resume.

I thought that he was too closely aligned with Wall Street, Alan Greenspan and Milton Friedman to clean up the mess those individuals and institutions caused.

He may be a nice guy, but IMHO, he's the wrong person for the job.

President Obama is a smart guy, but for the life of me, I cannot fathom most of his economic appointments.

[slipslidingaway]

16. As head of the NY Federal Reserve Bank since 2003 I think

he had a pretty good idea of what he was walking into, also in that position he either took part in all the bailout discussions since Bear Stearns or was kept abreast of what was taking place.

An interesting speech by him in 2006 on credit derivatives, he knew there were problems, but derivatives helped spread the risk to firms outside the banking industry and also spread the risk to other geographical locations.


Timothy F Geithner: Implications of growth in credit derivatives for financial stability
pdf file
http://www.bis.org/review/r060620b.pdf

[Avalux]

20. Interesting; thank you. n/t

[slipslidingaway]

28. You're welcome n/t

[amandabeech]

33. Thank you for posting the piece.

What jumps out at me is Geithner's trust in human nature.

He assumed that people would act in their long term interests and would not be the greedy bastards that we know they were and continue to be.

I hope that he's learned something by now.

[slipslidingaway]

39. What struck me was the idea of spreading the risk....

unfortunately we all became a party to this risk.

At the same time there were posts such as this...


http://siliconinvestor.advfn.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=21706065

9/15/2005

"I am pretty sure that the problems with credit default derivatives especially the inability to accurately assess counter-party risk and counter party solvency are going to be a major factor in the next financial system blow up..."

Who could have foreseen the problems :(


You're welcome :)

[tbyg52]

45. >>He assumed that people would act in their long term interests

A Wall Street insider *and* that naive? Scary combination.

[dkf]

42. I don't think he realized he was a one man crew though.

Now THAT is intimidating. Kind of makes it an impossible situation.

[slipslidingaway]

47. One would have thought there would be an extensive list of

names to fill the vacancies...given the economic conditions.

:shrug:

[depakid]

17. He was the head of the NY Fed! He helped make this mess.

[Avalux]

19. You sound like a Republican. No way you can make a rational assessment of Geithner.

He hasn't had nearly enough time - this is all going to take a long, long time. Don't fall into the trap of instant gratification put forth by the Republicans who got us here.

[depakid]

21. Do you know what the NY Fed does?

Here's an overview:

http://www.newyorkfed.org/aboutthefed/introtothefed.html

[Avalux]

23. Yes I do.

And I will not judge Geithner until he's had a chance to do what he's been appointed to do by President Obama.

[burythehatchet]

24. When someone tells me I "sound like a Republican" i usually tell them to

fuck themselves sideways. But I admire your restraint. :)

[eridani]

41. The problem is his ongoing support for those Republican policies n/t

[MadMaddie]

22. I think he knew it was bad but as he is peeling the onion

peel back layer by layer it's beyond anything he could imagine. He still has a lot of positions to fill, if he doesn't get them filled he is going to burn out,

[amandabeech]

34. He was until January President of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve.

He knows this onion inside out because he was there when a lot of it was created. I certainly hope that he has imagined all of this.

I do agree that he'll burn out if he doesn't get some help. I've suggested that some dissident economists like Krugman or Joseph Stiglitz recommend some appointees. New eyes, new perspectives.

[Jennicut]

25. He is one man. One man is not responsible for the entire system failing.

Sorry...there are no simple answers here. I am tired of hearing that Tim G. as the head of the NY Fed. So what? What about all the banks who decided to play these games with our money in the first place? That is who is ultimately to blame. I am not even all that fond of Geithner but I think its ridiculous to blame him for all that ills our economy. Sorry. These problems go back 20 years...Reagan, both Bushes, even Clinton all played a part. So much blame to go around...scapegoating one person does not fly with me.

[Celebration]

26. he didn't cause all the problems for sure

But he was a part of the system.

I would much prefer that we had a Sec. of Treasury that was not part of the system that caused the collapse. I wanted an outsider, who could hire underlings with a familiarity with the system.

I really resent that all the counterparties to AIG are getting 100% paid off with my tax money. If it was in a receivership we could probably avoid fulfilling a lot of those--the ones that were basically gambling rather than legitimate hedging.

[Jennicut]

27. I agree but he still is not to blame for it all

[amandabeech]

35. If it went Chapter 11, the CDSs get settled before everything else,

except maybe lawyers and accountants.

I learned about this recently here on DU. It was a nice little bit inserted into that hideous 2005 bankruptcy bill.

[Sebastian Doyle]

29. Please. He was the head of the goddamn New York Federal Reserve

thus, he is part of the PROBLEM, making it impossible for him to be part of the solution.

[Avalux]

30. Why is it impossible?

If this is the case, then why would Obama pick him? Makes no logical sense Obama would pick Geithner knowing he would be unable to do the job.

[amandabeech]

36. When you figure out why Obama picked him and the rest of the economic team,

please let me know.

I've been trying to figure it out since I googled "Austan Goolsbee" a year and a half ago.

I voted for Obama, I phone banked for Obama, I like his proposals in many areas, but ever since I hit google for Goolsbee, I've thought that economics was his weak point.

Unfortunately, it's probably the most important thing on his plate right now, and will be until things get a lot better.

[Every Man A King]

46. Ron Paul is that you? n/t

[Yavin4]

31. This Is Tim Geithner

[alcibiades_mystery]

32. The man is trying to fix complex wiring

While a howling pack of imbeciles bangs on the walls.

The calls for him to resign are stupid.

[Frank Booth]

37. Since Geithner has failed to achieve, even in

the modest task which was his charge, since he has stolen our money, since he has unrepetently betrayed our trust, I have no choice but to tell these bums to do whatever is necessary to recover our money from Geithner.

[LittleBlue]

38. He doesn't look capable to do the job.

He needed to take a hard-line stand on nationalization, or at least create some plan that has a shot of working. Something at least to gain back confidence in the banking system. He hasn't done any of that.

Nobody is going to have confidence in a man who seems to fiddle as Rome burns.

[eridani]

40. He may not have controlled those decisions, but he was a fucking CHEERLEADER for them

--when they were made. We need someone who has always been pro-regulation.

[acmavm]

43. The guy was with the Fed the entire time this filthy criminal conspiracy

was being committed.

If he didn't know what the score was, then he's much worse than anyone's ever given him credit for being.

He was either incompetent THEN or NOW. Which is it?

[Life Long Dem]

44. Yeah, screw that.

America just witnessed the sale of a century and some want to point a finger at the ones taking down these crooks?

Yeah, screw that freeper bullshit.