"Summers was his mentor, but other sources call him a Rubin protégé."
The questions and testimony in the Tim Geithner nomination hearings this morning are interesting.
The topics discussed early on are billions more needed for the banks (or else), and reform is badly needed to control the deficit.
And of course the need to restore 'confidence.' Confidence is a touchstone word like 911. Fear and security. The carrot and the stick.
The reforms discussed were reducing Social Security and Medicaid, and lowering corporate income taxes.
It is the banks that have caused the current deficit problems, and banking reform was never even breached as a topic.
Now, having worked in the political circles, we know that there is little of substance to be discussed seriously at a nomination hearing such as this. Senators float out ideas important to their backers, and the nominee agrees that there is a problem, and that they will be open to those ideas.
But we thought it was interesting.
By the way, Geithner did avoid some substantial taxes, and in a most egregious way. Not only that, but once he found out that he had erred, he did not make good on prior errors, until he became the nominee.
This is not a 'reform' candidate. This is a Mr. Fixit, a son of TARP, a three page proposal presented under duress.
Tim Geithner is primarily a political operative with a grounding in international economics. He is not a banker, a financier. Yes, he held the important post of NY Fed Chief, and he made a botch of it. If anything he would be more of an asset at State, but not in the key role at Treasury. Is the Obama bench this weak that they had to resort to a tainted nominee as their first choice?
This is a vignette about what is wrong in this country: democracy is under continuing assault by corporatism.
It is also amusing to watch the Republican senators, still flush from a long orgy of deficit spending, favoritism, no-bid contracts, lies and corruption, to be newly born as the vestal virgins of thrift and public virtue.
Tim Geithner was widely traveled as a child, living overseas with his father who was an administrator fo the Ford Foundation. He attended Dartmouth College, graduating with a A.B. in government and Asian studies in 1983. He earned an M.A. in international economics and East Asian studies from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in 1985. He has studied Chinese and Japanese.
After completing his studies, Geithner worked for Kissinger and Associates in Washington, D.C., for three years and then joined the International Affairs division of the U.S. Treasury Department in 1988. He went on to serve as an attache at the US Embassy in Tokyo. He was deputy assistant secretary for international monetary and financial policy (1995–1996), senior deputy assistant secretary for international affairs (1996-1997), assistant secretary for international affairs (1997–1998).He was Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs (1998–2001) under Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers. Summers was his mentor, but other sources call him a Rubin protégé.
Tim Geithner: Too Close to Goldman Sachs to Be Treasury Secretary, Critic Says
by Aaron Task
Jan 21, 2009 12:22pm EST
Tim Geithner apologized for not paying his taxes and some Republicans criticized his involvement in the TARP program at today's hearing, but Barack Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary appears on track for confirmation.
Congress is "all in a panic" and "really clueless" about this all-important member of Obama's cabinet, says Christopher Whalen, managing director and co-founder of Institutional Risk Analytics. "I'm just not sure Tim Geithner is the guy we should have driving the bus."
Beyond his tax gaffe, which will mainly serve to politically weaken Obama's pick, Whalen says Geithner is the wrong many for the job because of his decision-making as President of the New York Fed.
"I believe Tim Geithner only represents part of Wall Street - Goldman Sachs," he says, suggesting Goldman was the "primary beneficiary of the AIG bailout" and notes Goldman alum Stephen Friedman serves on the board of the NY Fed. (Hank Paulson and Robert Rubin, with whom Geithner had frequent meetings in the past year, are also Goldman alum.)...
