Did Tim Geithner get it right?

[pscot]

Interesting appraisal of Geithner's first year on the job, from the New Yorker. This is a brief excerpt from a long article. I'm not entirely convinced, but it's worth reading.


http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/03/15/100315fa_fact_cassidy

And yet—whisper it softly—there is good news about the financial system and the roundly loathed bank bailout, the seven-hundred-billion-dollar relief package that Congress approved in October, 2008. During the past ten months, U.S. banks have raised more than a hundred and forty billion dollars from investors and increased the reserves they hold to cover unforeseen losses. While many small banks are still in peril, their larger brethren, such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs, are more strongly capitalized than many of their international competitors, and they have repaid virtually all the money they received from taxpayers. Looking ahead, the Treasury Department estimates the ultimate cost of the financial-rescue package at just a hundred and seventeen billion dollars—and much of that related to propping up General Motors and Chrysler. Barring something unexpected, the bailout will end up costing taxpayers less than the savings-and-loan implosion of the early nineteen-nineties. The government could conceivably end up making money

more

[Orrex]

1. K/R

In part so that I can find this thread again later.

[mkultra]

2. of course he did

This will be the fastest turn around ever considering the depth of the circumstances before stimulus was passed. They do need to allow the CFTC regulate derivatives though.

[kirby]

3. Well...

"During the past ten months, U.S. banks have raised more than a hundred and forty billion dollars from investors and increased the reserves they hold to cover unforeseen losses."

Yeah, they did this by raising fees and interest rates on the already strapped consumer. I doubt the analysis includes those costs when comparing against the S&L bailout.

[RKP5637]

4. I try to remain optimistic. n/t

[NJmaverick]

5. Yeah he got it right but damned if any people will let that fact

interfere with their agendas or have his early critics admit they were wrong.

[Raineyb]

8. No he hasn't. All the things that was wrong with the banking system BEFORE the shit

hit the fan is still wrong with the banking system now. If you don't fix the underlying problems you are only re-inflating the bubble. It will burst again and the banks will be even larger (because our government instead of breaking up banks so that they weren't too big too fail instead helped them merge so they can become even larger i.e. even bigger and thus cannot be allowed to fail) and they will once again hold the economy hostage and demand yet another bail out.

Nothing has been corrected, nothing has been fixed, as per usual Geithner gets it wrong.

[TheWatcher]

17. Propaganda and Spin is not fact.

The Truth is Not an agenda, nor is reality.

It simply is what it is, despite those who have an agenda which seems to be to try to obfuscate, distort, deflect from, and fabricate both, on a fairly consistent basis.

You're definitely in way over your head trying to post in this forum.

You'll get eaten alive by people much smarter, wiser, and more informed.

Stick to G-D, where the ratio of lambs willing to buy into the fantasy is much, much higher.

[northernlights]

18. now they're trying to dump their toxic assets

onto pension funds.

[ixion]

21. Right. Geithner, who didn't 'see' the meltdown coming got it right... yeah, that's it.

:eyes:

[earthside]

6. Some people will believe anything ...

... but not Simon Johnson, via HuffingtonPost.com

http://baselinescenario.com/2010/03/08/they-saved-the-big-banks-but-kind-of-lost-the-economy-doing-it/">They Saved the Big Banks But Kind Of Lost The Economy Doing It - Simon Johnson/The Baseline Scenario

[upi402]

7. His victory lap doesn't circle this;

1. Mr. Geithner is quoted as saying, “Some on the left have fallen into a trap set by the Republicans, allowing voters to mistakenly think that the biggest part of the bank bailout had come under Obama rather Bush.” Mr. Geithner should know – as he spearheaded the saving of banks and other financial institutions under both Bush and Obama. In fact, it’s the continuation of George Bush’s policies by other means that really has erstwhile Obama supporters upset.

2. “I think there are some in the Democratic Party that think Tim and Larry are too conservative for them and that the President is too receptive to our advice.” Probably this is linked to the fact that Tim Geithner is not a Democrat.

3. Geithner also suggests that his critics compare government spending on different kinds of programs under President Obama: “By any measure, the Main Street stuff dwarfs the Wall Street stuff.” This insults our intelligence.

Wall Street created a massive crisis and we consequently lost 8 million jobs; any responsible government would have tried hard to offset this level of damage with all available means. This includes fiscal measures that will end up increasing out privately held government debt, as a percent of GDP, by around 40 percentage points.

It’s not the fiscal stimulus, broadly defined, that is Mr. Geithner’s problem – it’s the lack of accountability for the bankers and politicians who got us into this mess.


http://baselinescenario.com/2010/03/08/they-saved-the-big-banks-but-kind-of-lost-the-economy-doing-it/
Thanks for the link.

[pscot]

9. I agree with your last point

That is more the responsibil;ity of Obama and his justice department, and the congressional committees charged with oversight and regulation. I suppose one can argue whether the banks should have been nationalized, or broken up, but it seems pretty clear that there are bankers still drawing huge paychecks, who ought to be in jail.

[upi402]

10. I forgot

the quotation marks, my bad. I wish it was my 'last point' because I agree 100%;



"1. Mr. Geithner is quoted as saying, “Some on the left have fallen into a trap set by the Republicans, allowing voters to mistakenly think that the biggest part of the bank bailout had come under Obama rather Bush.” Mr. Geithner should know – as he spearheaded the saving of banks and other financial institutions under both Bush and Obama. In fact, it’s the continuation of George Bush’s policies by other means that really has erstwhile Obama supporters upset.

2. “I think there are some in the Democratic Party that think Tim and Larry are too conservative for them and that the President is too receptive to our advice.” Probably this is linked to the fact that Tim Geithner is not a Democrat.

3. Geithner also suggests that his critics compare government spending on different kinds of programs under President Obama: “By any measure, the Main Street stuff dwarfs the Wall Street stuff.” This insults our intelligence.

Wall Street created a massive crisis and we consequently lost 8 million jobs; any responsible government would have tried hard to offset this level of damage with all available means. This includes fiscal measures that will end up increasing out privately held government debt, as a percent of GDP, by around 40 percentage points.

It’s not the fiscal stimulus, broadly defined, that is Mr. Geithner’s problem – it’s the lack of accountability for the bankers and politicians who got us into this mess."



Ahhh guilt-free again. How do Geithner, Emmanuel, and Summers feel in the gut? I wouldn't trade places with those vacant beings for a second. Grateful is the word.

[JDPriestly]

13. Obama surrounds himself with advisers who are not Democrats.

Why? What is it about Democrats that Obama doesn't like?

[upi402]

15. He must be beholden, or

delusional in thinking that the money elites would entertain a single thought of letting him in the club.

[Change Happens]

11. Yes, he and Big Ben did get it right --- Deserve credit IMHO.

So does the leader of the country whose team these two belong to, President Obama!

[JDPriestly]

14. Sorry, but out here in California we really aren't feeling much, if any,

improvement. The Obama administration is just covering up the problems a trifle better. Our city government is falling apart, just wasting away from hunger. That's not good.

[Po_d Mainiac]

12. I heard this half-wit on NPR

damn near cost me a new dashboard.......
In this article, e misses on every point, starting with the first paragraphs....

Stress test :puke: mark to myth..
Look at EVERY bank that has failed over the last 18mos..http://banktracker.investigativereportingworkshop.org/banks/ then look at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html (info is in the press release) Denninger covers it also http://market-ticker.org/categories/18-Corruption and I have made the same point on this forum months ago

Aid to homeowners :giggle:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/business/economy/29modify.html?_r=1

Banks toxic assets
This same recycled TP that the Fed has put off auctioning?

But, he wrote a book! Ow Goody!! Check it out on Amazon...Look at the mark down!! http://www.amazon.com/dp/0374173206/..He should have made the pages out of paper that is softer and more absorbent..it would have a use in the book rack in the shithouse.

[girl gone mad]

16. hehe..

:)

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. Nicely done, JD. Nicely documented.

threads like this are so worth my time.

[IrateCitizen]

19. Dreck.

:puffpiece:

[Kltpzyxm]

22. If you're a fucking bankster sharing in hundreds of billions

of bonuses, instead of in jail where you belong, then he got it right.

If you're the other 99.9% of America, then no.