He's a baffling one, that President Obama

[EraOfResponsibility]

One the one hand, he appoints a clearly-pro corporate Treasury Secretary (Geithner) who wants to lessen restrictions on banks (which I don't like) but on the other, he chooses a clearly PRO-labor Labor Secretary (Hilda Solis) whom, theoretically, people like Geithner should be opposed to. I don't quite understand his reasoning behind that.

[Thrill]

1. hmmmm I don't think Geithner is pro-corporate

But the verdict is still out.

[leftofthedial]

2. can you name one single piece of evidence that he's not?

his entire *life* has been in the service of the financial establishment.

[rvablue]

7. Well, we do need a banking system in order to maintain the health and wealth of our country

so, the fact that he has participated in the financial industry shouldn't disqualify him as having some merit.

I certainly wouldn't want Dennis Kucinich or Ralph Nader running the Treasury.

Geithner knows how the system and banks work, and with this knowledge can effectively implement Obama's policies. Maybe that is why Obama hired him? :shrug:

[leftofthedial]

10. but do we need -this- "banking system"* ?

*euphemism for means whereby the oligarchy perpetuates its rule and whereby the controlling elite enich themselves at the expense of the nation.

[DFLforever]

12. Geithner worked for the federal government his entire career until

Bush took office in 2001. He worked his way up through the civil service to under secretary at Treasury during the Clinton administration.

He's the first non-millionaire (excepting Summers?) to hold this post in my memory, and I've been voting for decades.

His corporate crimes have been working for the IMF for a couple of years and the Federal Reserve of NY after that.

Calling him corporate is liking calling Holder a corporate attorney because he worked for a private law firm during the Bush presidency after a couple of decades working as a judge, federal attorney and deputy attorney general previously.

It doesn't quite fit.

Is he interested in salvaging and strengthening the banking system of the US? Yes, he is, because that's what his principal task at Treasury is at the moment.

[leftofthedial]

14. I got two words for you:

Summers, Rubin

[DFLforever]

15. Elaborate.

[leftofthedial]

16. they both are champions of deregulation

both are pro-status-quo-banking

both are "free market" ideologues

both nominally served in government, but have much stronger ties to Bear Stearns, Citicorp and other Wall Street corporations than they do to any political party or leader

neither has the slightest interest in helping American citizens

Geithner is their boy

[EraOfResponsibility]

3. he's pro-bank, though

[HughMoran]

17. I'm pro-flank

what of it?

[Jennicut]

4. Gee, maybe he wants different points of view rather then just one.

[Political Tiger]

5. I think Obama is picking the people he believes is best for the job

even those who disagree with his philosophy and ideology because in the end, it will be he, Obama, who will make the final call and not the people he has picked to work for him.

[JuniperLea]

6. He's doing what he said he'd do all along...

Choose those he felt could do the job very well... choose those who have a differing opinion... why on earth would anyone want the cronyism we've been forced to endure for 8 years to continue?

[EraOfResponsibility]

8. yeah, sometimes I forget that

[JuniperLea]

9. We've been conditioned...

And conditioned in a very bad way, by BushCo. I find it hard not to be cynical... this having a real president will take some getting used to;)

[firedupdem]

11. Geithner knows how those banks operate...we need that information

to make better decisions.

[jberryhill]

13. Echo chambers are not good /nt