Remember, back in June, when Tim Geithner said he was considering retiring from his post at the Treasury after the debt deal passed, telling friends that he was tired, needed a break and wanted to put family first (his wife and son live in Westchester, where the latter is finishing high school)? And the White House was all, “good one, buddy!” and “joked” about forcing him to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet before making clear in no uncertain terms that TG wasn’t going anywhere? Apparently Tim doesn’t. Which would explain the laughable statement he made earlier today, vis-à-vis being allowed to go home any time soon: Continue reading »
Treasury Secretary
As we mentioned two seconds ago, today is Tim Geithner’s birthday, and a big one at that. The Treasury Secretary turns 50, and on a day when he’s away from his family, being held against his will, watching the market drive off a cliff, a drop for which he’ll probably be blamed, this is what his staff got him: Continue reading »
That’s right, ladies, today we celebrate the moment Timothy Franz Geithner entered this world. And it’s not just any old birthday but the big 5-0, meaning we need to do something to make it special. Continue reading »
The White House Doesn’t Care That Tim Geithner Has A Family And A Mortgage In Larchmont, New York
By Bess Levin
At the end of June, Tim Geithner said that he was considering leaving his post at the Treasury after the debt deal past, telling friends that he’s tired, needs a break, and wants to put family first (his wife and son are living in Westchester again so that young Geithner can finish high school there). TG’s work pals were a bit too busy to say anything at the time, but now that the whole debt situation is behind us, they’ve begun to let him know he’s not going anywhere.
Obama, for one, doesn’t want to lose his office buddy, while White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley doesn’t want to deal with a confirmation battle that would take place should Geithner need to be replaced, which is why he “jokingly” tells Tim to fuck off and gestures towards his crotch when the topic of resignation comes up. Continue reading »
Ever since he was named Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner has suffered from a lack of respect, both from the outside world and internally. His boss makes “jokes” in public about dogs pissing on him, chief executives openly speak of his uselessness and hardly a day goes by without a story claiming he’s getting fired and replaced by (take your pick) Jamie Dimon, Mike Bloomberg, or Jojo the idiot circus boy. When people needed someone to mock for a cheap laugh, TG was their guy. Well no more. Hopefully you got your fill of Geithner jokes in already because Bloomberg says the window of opportunity has closed, in an article entitled “Geithner Butt of Jokes No More.” Continue reading »
Especially if no one pays any taxes, period. See? Simple. Continue reading »
“In the midst of debates on financial regulation and China’s currency in April,” Bloomberg reports today, “Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner sat down to discuss the U.S. economy– with comedian Jon Stewart.” Continue reading »
“Tim was organized and low-key, although given to occasional bursts of profanity and odd fits of giggling,” claims Steve Rattner in his new autobiography, which he also writes that JPMorgan vice-Chairman Jimmy Lee is something of a “crybaby” and describes Sheila Bair as a “small, trim woman about my age with brown hair, brown eyes, and an unsmiling, sour demeanor.” [NYP via DI]
Remember last year, when not a day went by without people claiming Tim Geithner was getting fired and the White House had supposedly all but forced him to move into an office in the basement where the pipes leaked so that they could prepare the place for Jamie Dimon, who we were to believe was TG replacement? That died down for a bit, in part because Geithner’s pussy outreach program was pretty successful and also because he came in handy for pick-up games. Mostly, though, it was because Obama and Dimon’s relationship hit the skids and the President needed to find someone else to make Geithner worry about. Allegedly he has. And his name is Mike.
Is Mayor Bloomberg being wooed to join the Obama administration? Asked about last weekend’s four-hour golf game with President Obama on Martha’s Vineyard, Bloomberg told reporters yesterday, “The economy was the main subject, other than discussing golf.” Now there are whispers that the president went even further and sounded out Bloomberg about whether he would join his foundering economic team as treasury secretary, replacing prime blame-target Timothy Geithner.
The reason a run-of-the-mill financial bust became a catastrophe, Mr Kaletsky claims in his book, was due largely to the stunning failures of one man: Henry Paulson, George Bush’s treasury secretary. In a passionate ad hominem attack, called “The Economic Consequences of Mr Paulson” (after Keynes’s 1925 pamphlet “The Economic Consequences of Mr Churchill”, a devastating critique of Sir Winston’s defence of the gold standard), Mr Kaletsky excoriates Mr Paulson, particularly his decision to allow the investment bank Lehman Brothers to fail. The hyperbole is spectacular. Mr Paulson, the book claims, came “closer to destroying capitalism than Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong combined.” [The Economist]
