January 8, 2010
Tim Geithner
Well, I would say that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is in trouble but it appears that he’s never going to be “in enough trouble” to be dismissed, let along fired in shame as he so well deserves. You may recall that American International Group (AIG) used tens of billions of dollars from the taxpayer-provided TARP funds to pay off their debts to Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and other creditors. That cause a minor temporary stir in the halls of Congress and even a lesser concern among us taxpayers (the latter will always puzzle me). But now we’ve learned that Tim Geithner, then head of the New York Fed, probably told AIG to keep their mouth shut on the matter.
According to Republican Representative Darrel Issa, “it appears that the New York Fed deliberately pressured AIG to restrict and delay the disclosure of important information”. He and Democrat Elijah Cummings are insisting on a hearing with Geithner to get some answers.
Geithner is a Wall Street man and will always be a Wall Street man. The so-called experts keep telling us we must have a Wall Street person in these jobs because it only they who understand the workings of those financial firms. But I take issue with that. The person who occupies the final decision maker’s seat is not going to have the taxpayers interest at heart if his allegiance is to Wall Street. Good Lord, look at all those appointees President’s Obama and Bush (as well as other Presidents) put in place that didn’t know their butts from a hole in the ground about the job they were appointed to (Janet Napolitano?). The key is being surrounded by people who do know the ropes. As far as that goes, when was the last time we had a President who knew what he was doing before he walked into the Oval Office?
Geithner has been under suspicion by the public since he was given the job by Obama. His approval rating was down to 18 percent back in early December 2009. It seems that everyone in the country knows what he is except Obama — or, at least, everyone else is willing to admit it. But President Obama’s Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, said today that the President had complete confidence in Geithner. ‘Hello!! You’re suppose to be a “peoples” President, not a Wall Street President. We just went through eight years with one of those at the top.’
And lest you forget what Wall Street is still doing with our money, Bank of America is expected to pay out record bonuses soon. I’m sure that’ll leave you with a positive attitude.
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