In New York this week, John Heileman repeats reports that Tim Geithner wants to resign as Treasury Secretary this year after the debt ceiling talks are resolved, and kind of surprisingly gives the nod to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg as the most likely successor, adding to talk of her shortlisting from earlier this month. His logic is here, and includes Sandberg’s growing national reputation (especially after this week’s New Yorker profile), her history as chief of staff to Larry Summers at Treasury, and her appeal to the business community without any Wall Street/GE-doesn’t-pay-taxes baggage for the, um, anti-business community.

It’s hard to argue with Sandberg’s timing so far – she joined Google pre-IPO, cashed out after their 2004 IPO, and jumped to Facebook in 2008. So the next sensible new-media thingy would seem to be Twitter, and the Obama administration has that covered as well. And even some people who hate her think she’d be well suited for Washington.

On the other hand, with the current best guess for a Facebook IPO being something like 1Q 2012, the timing here might be a bit tougher if Timmy in fact wants out in the fall and Sandberg is looking to stay on to manage the IPO and maybe cash out some of her equity.

What do we think? Any chance Sandberg is actually going to be the first female Treasury Secretary? Would she take the job if it meant leaving Facebook before the IPO / grinding Google+ into the dust? Would Facebook and the Feds let her keep her equity if she did?

Wanted: Economic Savior [NYM]

A Woman’s Place [New Yorker]

Also, this: Woods+

Comments (21)

  1. Posted by Guest | July 13, 2011 at 3:25 PM

    She has a much better chance of making me a sandwich than being the Treasury Secretary…although now that I think about it she could be a secretary as well.

  2. Posted by JPM | July 13, 2011 at 3:31 PM

    making money in tech IPOs/chillin at Facebook = steering 14 trillion in debt

    makes sense

  3. Posted by Texashedge | July 13, 2011 at 3:36 PM

    Crazy opinion: I’d like someone in finance to be our HNIC of finance

  4. Posted by the show | July 13, 2011 at 3:39 PM

    Good grief some tech hippy as a treasury secretary

  5. Posted by Anonymous | July 13, 2011 at 3:43 PM

    This would be about as smart as making Donald Trump the Secretary of State.

  6. Posted by Random Angry Boston Guy | July 13, 2011 at 3:45 PM

    Fahkin hipstahs!  Fahk them.

  7. Posted by Anonymous | July 13, 2011 at 3:50 PM

    Did she get lost trying to find the L train or something?

    -snobby Manhattanite 

  8. Posted by Guest | July 13, 2011 at 3:51 PM

    Hockey Night in Canada?

  9. Posted by Anonymous | July 13, 2011 at 3:53 PM

    Or Obama as president.

  10. Posted by Left to Right | July 13, 2011 at 3:53 PM

    Yes, no.

  11. Posted by Jackie Treehorn | July 13, 2011 at 3:58 PM

    When asked her chances of becoming Treasury Secretary, Cliff Asness replied “Fuck her”

  12. Posted by Guest | July 13, 2011 at 3:59 PM

    And they said we couldn’t do it.
     
    –Communist Party USA

  13. Posted by Guest | July 13, 2011 at 4:01 PM

    Franklin Raines?

    - A guy who is already examining his motives, but is cool with them

  14. Posted by Your Liberal Victors | July 13, 2011 at 4:05 PM

    Can’t you get some new material?  We liberals like creative insults as much as anyone and not one Rush Limbaugh used 12 years ago.  

  15. Posted by Anonymous | July 13, 2011 at 4:11 PM

    You first.

  16. Posted by Ari Gold | July 13, 2011 at 4:14 PM

    Matt you are so fired.

  17. Posted by MLIB | July 13, 2011 at 4:19 PM

    She’s not good looking enough to make me a sandwich but she can clean my apartment.

  18. Posted by Mets Fan | July 13, 2011 at 5:11 PM

    no wall-street baggage? she’s einhorn’s cousin!! 

  19. Posted by Lewis Winthorpe III | July 13, 2011 at 5:15 PM

    Craigslist — New York — Missed Connections

    L-train, last Monday, 1:30pm.  We both got off at Bedford Ave.

    You: Heavily bearded, white undershirt, ripped jeans, bright red TOMS shoes, wearing a grey wool ski cap in Brooklyn in July, “reading” Atlas Shrugged, but you didn’t appear to be actually comprehending it.

    Me: Non-descript grey blouse, black skirt, “lights off” face, green Longchamp bag, up for possible Treasury Secretary nomination.

    You’re probably a dumbass, but I dig your style!  I’m not sure why you weren’t at work in the middle of the goddamn day on a fucking Monday, but hey, I wasn’t working either!  I’d love to get together to discuss the commercialization of Willamsburg with you, or whatever.  I have no problem with keeping the room pitch black and never meeting your friends, so shoot me a message…

  20. Posted by Guest | July 13, 2011 at 5:29 PM

    lights on or off?

  21. Posted by Left to Right | July 13, 2011 at 6:49 PM

    Lights dimmed.  A choir covering Radiohead in the background.  Justin Timberlake posting “Happy birthday, guys!” Winklevi’s profiles. 

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