“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 »
Treasury Secretary
“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 following post is by InfiniteGuest, a regular reader and frequent commenter.
Ask a friend, “What do you think of Ben Bernanke,” and you get a substantive response, making comparisons to Greenspan, speaking more generally about Central Banks, the Great Depression, society at large, widening and continuing the discussion. “What do you think of Barack Obama?” yields comparisons to President Bush, opinions on the Presidency as an institution, on health care, our wars and our foreign policy, and of course, the state of race relations in America. Ask a friend about Larry Summers, Paul Volcker or Robert Rubin and expect a long conversation to follow. Hank Paulson provokes a referendum on Goldman Sachs. The mention of Paul O’Neill or John Snow makes for a good discussion of ethics. But ask, “What do you think of Tim Geithner,” and after, “I don’t like him,” the conversation stalls.
The Post reported today that Jamie Dimon’s name has continued to come up in Washington as a possible replacement for Tim Geithner. This isn’t very shocking, as Jamie Dimon was considered a candidate for the job before TG was nominated, and consistently over the course of the year. Plus, he’s Obama’s favorite banker and so and and so forth. If asked to take the job, JD, who’s said he’d “love to serve his country,” probably would, and even Dick Bové is supporting the nom. Still, Bové is likely only doing so because she’s under the impression that Ken Lewis is going to get the Bank of America CEO gig. When reality sets in that KL is going to be escorted from the BAC building come Dec. 31, crazy lady Divé will obviously then declare Lewis the only one fit to be Treasury Secretary. Plus, Dimon has expressed that he’s planning on staying at JPMorgan for five to seven more years and after that, fingers crossed, will open a bar. But someone is going to have to take over for TG, whether it’s Dimon or whoever, and the question is when. Lately it seems as though the stress of acting as everyone’s fire hydrant is getting to the li’l fella. And now, he’s shouldering some of the blame for why AIG employees aren’t getting paid, which mean it’s very likely that, like Cuomo, Benmosche’s going to put Geithner in a room and do “unspeakable things” to the Secretary, that will leave him in too damaged a state to do his job. So let’s make this interesting. Two questions:
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