Tim Geithner Will Not Replace The Beard

You won't have Tim Geithner to kick around any more. The little guy and now-former U.S. Treasury Secretary won't be pursuing a D.C. sequel.

Author:: Dealbreaker
Updated:: Jan 14, 2019
Original:: Jan 25, 2013

You won't have Tim Geithner to kick around any more. The little guy and now-former U.S. Treasury Secretary won't be pursuing a D.C. sequel.

Geithner firmly ruled out ever serving as chairman of the Federal Reserve, something that has been mentioned by people close to the outgoing secretary as a possibility down the road.
“Not a chance,” he said. “I have great respect for the institution, but that will be someone else's privilege.”
Geithner is returning to New York to be with his family and said he has no immediate plans beyond relaxing and traveling with his wife.

Tim was so eager to end his four years in Washington that he didn't even wait for his successor to be confirmed. Which means that while Jack Lew is up on the Hill kissing ass, Neal Wolin's in charge at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, for now.

Mr. Wolin had planned to leave Treasury but agreed to stay on until the White House’s new nominee to lead Treasury, Jacob Lew, wins Senate confirmation. It’s likely to take at least a few weeks for the Senate to hold a confirmation vote.
That leaves Mr. Wolin running the 100,000-plus person department, which has been in the thick of debt ceiling crisis, tax and budget negotiations, and international affairs.

Exiting Timothy Geithner talks fiscal future [Politico]
Timothy Geithner's Legacy [Steve Rattner in the NYT]
Obama's Treasury pick Lew courts Senate Republicans [Reuters]
Neal Wolin to Take Reins at Treasury — For Now [WSJ Washington Wire blog]

As you may have heard, Obama is apparently close to nominating Jack Lew for Treasury Secretary, giving Tim Geithner his late Christmas wish: a one-way ticket outta there. And while he's previously said to have no interest in writing about his time in Washington (and at the NY Fed before that), friends o' TG claim that his plan for the next year or so involve "a round of 'detox' and writing a book." Obviously we're still very far off from anything concrete but publishers will undoubtedly be banging down his door in no time and when they do, it might be nice to at least have a title to wet their palates. While Geithner packs his bags, let's do him a solid and come up with some options. The year spent sunning himself off the coast of Ko Samui (or puttering around Larchmont, or taking a job with the least amount of responsibility possible, whatever the detox entails) will presumably do wonders to take the edge of the last 48 months but if he's still in an angsty phase by the time he sits down to bang out his story, perhaps one of the following would work?

Earlier today, it was reported that Timothy P. Geithner has informed people that he "plans to leave the administration by the end of January, even if President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans haven’t reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling." Will this actually happen? Those unfamiliar with the Treasury Secretary's attempts to leave his post in the past will say yes. He's leaving, ship-shape. Those who've watched TPG try and fail to bust out of Washington for the last nineteen months, however, know better. More than likely, he's not going anywhere and it's not because deep down inside he doesn't actually want to go home but because his bosses won't let him. Witness, if you will, a small sampling of examples in which his requests have been denied, either directly (via someone laughing in his face) or indirectly (by giving those who've applied to replace him the wrong directions to their interview):

“You can smile and laugh about it all you want,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) bristled at Mr. Geithner during a House Budget Committee hearing. Mr. Chaffetz then intoned he was getting sick of the Treasury secretary’s “silly little smirk.” To be sure, Mr. Geithner did have a smile on his face during parts of the hearing, particularly when he was interrupted by Republicans on the panel when they didn’t like his answers on deficit reduction. He even spent part of the hearing answering questions with his arms crossed. At one point, he suggested that Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R., Kan.) had an “adolescent perspective” on how the economy worked.

As you may have heard, because you've read the reports reports or picked up on the Morse code message he's blinked out during every appearance on CNBC or he threw himself on the hood of your car and screamed "Get me outta here" the last time you drove up to the Treasury building, Tim Geithner is ready to leave Washington. Has been for some time, in fact, but previous requests to go home were all denied. Now that his bosses are supposedly going to allow him to leave in the event Obama is reelected, many are wondering what will be next for TG. Despite having spent the majority of his career in public service and giving the impression that he has no desire to work for Wall Street, Bloomberg is thinking that with the albatross that his his unsellable Larchmont house around his neck, a family, and college tuition to pay, Geithner may not have a choice. The years in public service -- particularly engaging in diplomacy with domestic and foreign partners -- left a deep impression on Geithner, infusing him with a sense of purpose that he might find lacking on Wall Street...Yet the years in civil servitude have also left Geithner in need of a better salary. Geithner is one of the least wealthy men to head the Treasury Department in recent years. He took more than a 50 percent pay cut to assume the job. His $199,700 salary is higher than the $174,000 earned by most members of Congress. His pay has been increased by $8,400 in three years, yet his net worth pales next to such predecessors as Hank Paulson and Bob Rubin. With two mortgages and two college-age children, the lure of private-sector money could be hard to resist. BlackRock's Fink, for instance, received $23.8 million in salary and stock in 2011, making him No. 1 in the Finance 50, Bloomberg Markets' annual ranking of the best-paid CEOs at the largest U.S. financial companies. Other ideas Bloomberg has for ways Geithner can make ends meet that he's already said no to include writing a memoir. He "publicly ruled out" doing so in September, but they're pretty sure he'll reconsider after the guy he hired to patch up his roof tells him the whole thing needs to be replaced. What's Next For Tim Geithner [Bloomberg] Related: Tim Geithner To Finally Be Set Free? Also Related: Robert Shiller, Westchester-Area Realtor Rub Tim Geithner’s Nose In It

Tim Geithner basically spent the last four years trying and failing, numerous times, to leave Washington, i.e. his own personal torture chamber, but according to Chaz Gasparino, TG may allow himself to be pulled back in.

According to CG, there's a desk at BlackRock waiting for the former Treasury Secretary when he's ready.