Matthew Yglesias » Reading About Timothy Geithner

Nov 22nd, 2008 at 2:45 pm

Reading About Timothy Geithner

Here’s some Tim Geithner clippings:

Here’s Bob Kuttner: “Geithner’s admirers span the spectrum from Republican financial mogul Pete Peterson to liberal Democrat Barney Frank. One can infer from his broad fan base three possible conclusions: Wall Street is so clubby and politically powerful that permissible policy differences just aren’t that great; or maybe Geithner is all things to all people; or perhaps, in a deep crisis, truly talented and effective people can earn broad respect. “
Here’s Noam Scheiber: “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.”
James Fallows notes Geithner’s background in Asia issues.
A New York Times profile from back in 2007.

I think it’s interesting that he’s a career civil servant turned political appointee, rather than a guy with a business background conscripted into government service. The financial crisis presents a difficult dilemma insofar as you want policy to be made by people who understand the world of finance, but you don’t want it to be made by people whose personal history in the finance world creates too many conflicts of interest or deep personal investment in the future of various bank executives. Geithner’s biography seem to walk that line appropriately.

Comments
28

Filed under: Geithner, Transition, Treasury

28 Responses to “Reading About Timothy Geithner”

Susan Kishner Says:
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Well said
Jasper Says:
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I was kinds hoping for Summers (does anybody seriously think Volker would have gotten the nod at his age?), but I think Obama — as usual — has made the right move. Geithner seems like a competent technocrat. And Summers will be available for the Fed chief job when Bernanke’s term is up.
Another Chris Says:
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Noam Scheiber: Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, two men skeptical of market interventions.

Cough, cough.
Greg Says:
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
“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.”

You mean the cash-for-trash program?

Or the JP Morgan Chase bailout Bear Stearns loan?

Or the decision to let Lehman fail for “moral hazard” reasons – after already allowing so many others to go hat in hand – and so smashing on the accelerator for the collapse?

And how effective (not how much power they gave to the Fed) were the new ideas and facilities at stopping this catastrophe?
Greg Says:
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Wall Street is so clubby and politically powerful that permissible policy differences just aren’t that great

Say it ain’t so, Joe!

Top Ten Contributors to Barack Obama:

1. Goldman Sachs
2. DLA Piper
3. Citigroup, Inc.
4. Lehman Brothers
5. JP Morgan Chase & Co.
6. Skadden, Arps et. al.
7. Morgan Stanley
8. Kirkland & Ellis
9. Time Warner
10. Viacom Inc.

I suppose the lambs will be down with the lions, and the Unionists and the Republicans, and the Israelis and the Palestinians, and the US with the USSR, before the supine profession of journalists will admit that Wall Street is, was, and always will be a Bipartisan going concern.

There are no atheists in foxholes and there are no (political) ideologues in executive suites. Not to mention that every senior Wall Street guy I know is a Democrat.
Don the libertarian Democrat Says:
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:27 pm
My choice was Alan Blinder.Initially, I was bothered by the choice because he had hired M.Alix, and that seemed strange.

But I’ve now read two talks by him, which are pretty decent, although I don’t agree totally with them. I’ll link to them if anyone wants to read them. One comes via Justin Fox at Curious Capitalist on Time:

http://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/speeches/2007/gei070515.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/807c8a64-355a-11dd-998d-0000779fd2ac.html
roger Says:
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Wrong choice. Hilary would make an excellent treasury secretary – for one thing, she knows that the financial world should always be dependent on the world of real goods and services, and so she would be averse to the pipeline that exists between the banks and the Treasury. She’d be much more likely to see the need to loan to manufacturers – and to use the power of the purse to force radical changes on those manufacturers – and much more suspicious of the banks.

Of course, come next week, MY, after another dinner with such major public intellectuals as Megan McCardle, will be explaining why it is so so necessary to keep Citibank from falling, but unnecessary to keep those lazy, unionized guys that make 70 per hour (even if they don’t, they do – Megan will explain it all to him – it is simple, like black is white, the markets are self-regulating, and we are winning in Iraq) from freeloadin’.

Obviously, there is going to have to be continuing, major pressure from the grassroots to keep the Obama administration from being swallowed in the D.C. bubble, where governing is for the 250 thousand + per year set.
SqueakyRat Says:
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:42 am
Are Fed governors in fact civil service employees?
Ed Says:
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:04 am
“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.”

What these tributes miss is that the Feds’ handling of the economic crisis has, by any metric you want to adopt, been a disaster. Since I’ve never met Geithner I can only judge his abilities by the results of his work, and it hasn’t been pretty.

This reminds me all those World War I histories with good things to say about Douglas Haig, at the end of the day he was still responsible for the Somme and Passchendaele.
Greg Says:
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:30 am
Are Fed governors in fact civil service employees?

Actually, no. (I’ve always been surprised by this)

The Federal Reserve System is an private, non-government institution.
Roger Bannister Says:
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:41 am
Greg: What fraction of B.H.O.’s total was given by those top ten? I honestly don’t know, but if influence is to be inferred from contributions….
Greg Says:
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
What fraction of B.H.O.’s total was given by those top ten? I honestly don’t know, but if influence is to be inferred from contributions….

Roger, I think in total it’s only a fraction of his support. Same for the support from hedge fund managers et al.

The problem is that these came more or less en bloc. So they’re very attractive donations.

What ticks me off, then, is that Obama’s wide base of support via small donations and the internet ought to mean that he doesn’t need to rely on any of these singularly large groups because they only make up a part of the whole.

But then he goes and appoints Geithner, so go figure
Luke Says:
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Was it not the turning-of-heads by bankers and financial institutions creating ridiculous, non-affordable mortgages (like the balloon mortgages) that created this meltdown in the first place? Be wary of an individual who now would like to see the Federal Reserve have ‘increased authority’ to deal with this situation. After all, he was the president of a large, private banking institution which obviously did not stop this crisis from coming about.

Are they trying to cover their tracks? Or did crashing our economy (and therefore hurting the global economy as a whole) because of all the profits to be made simply not stave their greed? They now have one of their own in a very powerful position.

Oh the silly world we live in. We really need to educate our children better so they may see through the schemes of those in power, whether private or federal.
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Reading About Timothy Geithner

28 Responses to “Reading About Timothy Geithner”

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