Tim Geithner Appeared To Consider ‘Beating The Living Shit Out Of’ TARP Inspector General Neil Barofsky, Choose To Slay Him With Dramatic Hand Gestures Instead

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Barofsky met with Geithner in the fall of 2009 to express his concern that the Treasury Department had made TARP unpopular by not being fully forthcoming about how TARP was being used, including not forcing banks disclose how they were spending TARP funds. Geithner got dramatic, [Barofksy writes in his new book, Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street and said] ‘Neil, you think I don’t hear those criticisms? I hear them. And each one, they cut me,’ he said, pausing and then making an emphatic cutting motion with one hand as he said ‘like a knife.’” After a Geithner subordinate in the room, Herb Allison, expressed personal offense at Barofsky’s suggestion that Geithner has not been fully transparent, Barofsky responded, “I am not suggesting that the secretary has failed in transparency, I am stating it. Mr. Secretary, you’ve failed to be sufficiently transparent, and that is one of the reasons why people are so angry. But you can still fix it.” And that’s when the ticking time bomb that was Geithner erupted, telling Barofsky: ‘No one has ever made the banks disclose the type of shit that I made them disclose after the stress tests. No one! And now you’re saying that I haven’t been fucking transparent?’ Cooler heads prevailed, and the meeting went on, but Geithner never really came fully off the boil. “As we parried back and forth, Geithner repeatedly reached a pitch of anger, regaling me with detailed expletive-filled explanations that established my apparent idiocy. He would then calm himself down and give me a forced, almost demonic smile.” After the meeting was over, Barofsky and his deputy, Kevin Puvalowski, had a big laugh about it. ‘In all honesty, I think he was about to come out of his chair and beat the living shit out of you,’ Puvalowski remarked. [HuffPo]

Comments (34)

  1. 1
    Posted by Tim-eh | July 20, 2012 at 1:04 PM

    The only thing Tiny Timeh can beat-up is his midget turbotax tax spreadsheet.

  2. 2
    Posted by Friday malaise | July 20, 2012 at 1:15 PM

    How many Pol- ah forget it

  3. 3
    Posted by guest | July 20, 2012 at 1:16 PM

    And whose army?

  4. 4
    Posted by guest | July 20, 2012 at 1:18 PM

    I don't know why but the idea of two guys named Timmy and Neil getting in a fight makes me laugh.

  5. 5
    Posted by Tarp = a cover up | July 20, 2012 at 1:18 PM

    Barofsky > Burgundy?
    http://www.hark.com/clips/vgwrhvxblv-escalated

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | July 20, 2012 at 1:19 PM

    Neil Barofsky isn't impressed by knife hand gestures. Back in Bogota they came at him with real knives.

  7. 7
    Posted by pazzo83 | July 20, 2012 at 1:21 PM

    What means transparent?

    - National Bureau of Statistics, PRC

  8. 8
    Posted by gartman | July 20, 2012 at 1:25 PM

    Lets just say quite a few.

  9. 9
    Posted by guest | July 20, 2012 at 1:25 PM

    “I am not suggesting that the secretary has failed in transparency, I am stating it."

    Suck on that Herb.

  10. 10
    Posted by Guest | July 20, 2012 at 1:25 PM

    They obviously did not have this get-together at the NY Athletic Club.

  11. 11
    Posted by guest | July 20, 2012 at 1:26 PM

    ahem?

    - Herb Allison, personally offended subordinate ready to rage

  12. 12
    Posted by Kaaarrrrllll | July 20, 2012 at 1:36 PM

    What a mouth on Lil' Timmy! Who woulda thunk it?

  13. 13
    Posted by guest | July 20, 2012 at 1:40 PM

    Give him a break. Geithner's house in Larchmont was still on the market and his realtor was pestering him to drop the price. Stressful!

  14. 14
    Posted by Timmy | July 20, 2012 at 1:42 PM

    Be careful, Neil, I kicked Chinese butt on the basketball court and I'll kick yours too.

  15. 15
    Posted by Guest | July 20, 2012 at 1:50 PM

    Geithner looks like Dr. Janosz Poha from Ghostbusters 2 and nothing like Bill Crudup. That's all I've got.

    Big Gulps, huh? Well, see ya later.

  16. 16
    Posted by V. McCrudden | July 20, 2012 at 1:55 PM

    Well, what a bunch of cordial fellows.

  17. 17
    Posted by guest | July 20, 2012 at 1:56 PM

    Well done TImmy-san

    -Chris Webber

  18. 18
    Posted by Bawney | July 20, 2012 at 1:57 PM

    Thought about it all the time.

  19. 19
    Posted by Brett Michaels, CFA | July 20, 2012 at 2:01 PM

    Hope that Timmy sang all of "Every Rose Has its Thorn", not just the "cuts me like a knife" verse.

  20. 20
    Posted by mr peanut | July 20, 2012 at 2:09 PM

    I guess he showed Neil who's Neil

  21. 21
    Posted by Nell B. | July 20, 2012 at 2:17 PM

    Tim Geitner can #HMD

  22. 22
    Posted by VonSloneker | July 20, 2012 at 2:24 PM

    Based on the revalation of this new facet of Timmy's personality, I know who I'd cast to play him in the movie…[youtube JjAyazqtQj8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjAyazqtQj8 youtube]

  23. 23
    Posted by jerseyshorepatrol | July 20, 2012 at 2:41 PM

    Wow that sounds like a really good deal. But I think I have a better one. How about I give you the finger?

    TG grunts…

  24. 24
    Posted by MHA | July 20, 2012 at 2:53 PM

    Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me, you brain-dead dwarf.

    - Reported retort from Neil Barofsky

  25. 25
    Posted by Nick | July 20, 2012 at 2:54 PM

    At the corner of Main and Elm street, thanks.

    Uh, huh… Ok. Yeah, I know… Ok, thanks, see ya there.

  26. 26
    Posted by guest | July 20, 2012 at 2:56 PM

    This is amazing. Is the actual show as entertaining?

  27. 27
    Posted by Timmy | July 20, 2012 at 3:18 PM

    I’ll bitch slap the shit out of you

  28. 28
    Posted by Movie Buff | July 20, 2012 at 3:25 PM

    I know, right?

    - Billy Crudup

  29. 29
    Posted by WTF__k | July 20, 2012 at 3:33 PM

    I'd picture it as a cartoonish and ineffective slap-fest, with many tears shed on both sides.

  30. 30
    Posted by VonSloneker | July 20, 2012 at 4:39 PM

    Yup, fucking hilarious. "Veep," on HBO is meant to be an American version of it, but doesn't pull it off.

    - Profanity Laden Entertainment Quant

  31. 31
    Posted by Guest | July 20, 2012 at 4:54 PM

    Its time to hit the gym in a serious way when someone tells you that Tim Geithner was about to beat the living shit out of you.

  32. 32
    Posted by Conscience Conserv. | July 22, 2012 at 10:17 AM

    Geithner believes confidence in the banking system trumps all other concerns. After all that's what his mentor Larry Summers believed . This is just another episode in a series of freebies including the famous 100% pay-off on AIG CDS contracts. Convincing Eric Holder not to prosecute Wall Street is yet another example.

  33. 33
    Posted by Mark B. | July 22, 2012 at 2:40 PM

    <img src="http://www.mynewcarquote.us/ikea/is.jpg"/>I'm entirely with Tim Geithner on this one. Do the right thing Tim! <img src="http://www.mynewcarquote.us/xbox/vi.jpg"/&gt;

  34. 34
    Posted by Smith | July 23, 2012 at 9:51 AM

    Beat the crap out of him, nah. However, could probably headbutt him to death.