Wonkette
The Washington Post has an extraordinary article today about why Tim Geithner’s press conference to unveil the administration’s bank rescue plan last week seemed to… suck? Is that the word? Well it wasn’t the plan, so much — as best we understood this vague monstrosity, it was something like, “Public private money tax blah blah uhhh force lending guarantee toxic gas blah blah blah uhhhhh TWO TRILLION DOLLARS,” so fair enough — so much as it was Geithner himself, who appeared to have no confidence in himself, the plan, or America. The Post reports that this is probably because he had ditched a different plan a few days earlier, and what you heard at the press conference was just some unreadable gibberish he threw together on the john a few minutes before taking the podium.
Just days before Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner was scheduled to lay out his much-anticipated plan to deal with the toxic assets imperiling the financial system, he and his team made a sudden about-face.
According to several sources involved in the deliberations, Geithner had come to the conclusion that the strategies he and his team had spent weeks working on were too expensive, too complex and too risky for taxpayers.
They needed an alternative and found it in a previously considered initiative to pair private investments and public loans to try to buy the risky assets and take them off the books of banks. There was one problem: They didn’t have enough time to work out many details or consult with others before the plan was supposed to be unveiled.
[...]
Meanwhile, the sources said, Obama’s senior economic advisers were hobbled in crafting the plan by a shortage of personnel. To date, the president has not nominated any assistant secretaries or undersecretaries at the Treasury, and the handful of mid-level staffers who have started work were still finding their offices and getting their building passes and BlackBerrys.
The Obama people probably had orders to leak this stuff to the Post as a way of telling Washington and the public, “just forget that thing Geithner did last week — he had no staff and was going nuts getting confirmed, right? — and in a few weeks we’ll start over with a well developed, confident and far-reaching new plan to destroy America.”
Geithner. We do not trust this guy very much. And we definitely don’t trust his little friend, Larry Summers, always sneaking, sneaking. These two are best friends with every leading asshole on Wall Street. Coincidentally, the New York Times has a cozy profile of Summers this morning in which both he and Geithner play down any notion that they’re waging “turf wars” against each other. This is not the first time that these imaginary Summers-Geithner Intergalactic Wars have been treated with breathtakingly unnecessary detail. And yet we do not hear quite enough about what may be the actual “turf wars,” with the Geithner-Summers team on one side and happiness on the other.
Late Change in Course Hobbled Rollout of Geithner’s Bank Plan [WP]
In a World Not Wholly Uncooperative, Obama’s Top Economist Makes Do [NYT]
The Post reports that this is probably because he had ditched a different plan a few days earlier, and what you heard at the press conference was just some unreadable gibberish he threw together on the john a few minutes before taking the podium.
In other news, Tim Geithner is apparently my doppleganger, as the above statement characterizes my performance at work to a T.
Ha ha–sucks to be him!
Unreliable gibberish? Wait — since when did the same person start working as the US Treasury Secretary and the Japanese Finance Minister?
Red Zeppelin: Ha ha-sucks to be us!
I think I speak for the American people when I say that Tim Geithner would be more likable, trustworthy, and endearing if he were drunk on sake whenever he spoke in public.
How the fuck hard is it to say “sorry class, my daughter is sick, lecture notes are posted online and we’ll continue next week”. Rather than FUCK UP THE WORLD with HASTINESS.
I will pay a hundred cigars for Paul Volcker to save us.
You always like to hear the man in charge of the Treasury Department described as if he’s a child who got told he had a big speech to give to his class and didn’t prepare for it, so he just vamped on some vague financial sounding words. But it’s all OK ‘cuz now he totally studied up and got the help of some big kids. Is there anyone in finance or banking who isn’t partially retarded?
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
I prefer the theory he’s doing nothing, waiting till ALL the banks collapse so they can be nationalized without anyone (ahem, Eric Cantor) complaining about Obama-mandated socialism. But I’m prolly just giving Geithner a pass cause I find him aesthetically pleasing.
Geithner hasn’t learned anything from the Bush/Cheney administration. If you come up with a plan, then realize the plan isn’t going to work, you stick with the plan. Expedience beats competence like a red headed step-shild at a family reunion.
That explains why he looked like he was going to wee-wee in his “big man” pants at that press conference.
You would have guessed he should have botoxed his forehead before his buttocks, what with being in the public eye and all.
all is cool on the western front.. not sure what everyone’s so freaked out about. of course, i am a felon with a recent history of psychological instability, working at wal-mart, (on terms of probation,) filing for bankruptcy, and drunk out of my mind at a quarter ’till 2 on a tuesday. (i’m only guessing that that’s all relevant.)
I don’t know what’s up with them. Every wonketteer put in an app to work for Hopey…..bring us in, Coach!
now my advice to those who die
declare the pennies on your eyes
I guess “CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN” includes changing your mind the instant before you step out in front of the world press to announce your balls out plan to save the moneez.
Now can we just admit that all our bank accounts are actually empty and work from there? Yes there will be bank runs. Yes there will be looting and shooting in the streets. Yes the rivers will run red. On the other hand think of all the “end of the world” orgying that will commence once the notion of having “relationships” and “families” become quaintly outmoded in favor of bartering sex for cigarettes and such. Count me in, and I apologize beforehand if my groping transcends your boundaries in a way you might find momentarily “creepy.” 10 minutes later 5 other dudes will have had their way with you, and I’ll be a distant memory. Works for me.
Sussemilch: Make sure they’re cheap ones or he won’t smoke them.
Cape Clod: No, the plan is there is no plan.
So…. I *won’t* be getting those crisp hundreds with which to light my cigars? Is that what I’m hearing?
As one of the few people left in the world with a prime mortgage and a car that’s paid off, I’m only just getting used to my new status as a plutocrat. DON’T WRECK THIS FOR ME, TIMMY.
Hey, uhh, Tim, the Klingons called — they want their forehead prosthesis back.
Geithner probably got his job the same way Homer Simpson, in an alternate reality, got to be high school class president: the cool guys voted him in as a joke on everybody else. Ha ha! I’m laughing so hard it hurts!
Geithner has serious eyebrow issues which, among other things, lead me to believe he has some serious character issues as well. He should pencil ‘em in a little, though he would probably end up looking like Uncle Leo.
This guy’s a Turbo.
Bah, all investors care about is the value the gafferment is going to put on troubled assets: whether it’s ‘market rate’ or at a severe discount. Geithner didn’s say, so Wallstreet got heartburn and ran like the chickens they are. Somebody call a waaaaaaambulance. In conclusion: TRAP - Troubled Retards Acting Pissy.
How the mighty have fallen. That dude used to be the president of Caprica.
Should we be surprised that a man who couldn’t figure out his own taxes is having trouble coming up with a plan to save the economy?
Well, yah, dad, I need fifty bucks. EASY and THANKS!
Well, dinner turned out more complex than I thought, and there was that prom dress mess, and the medical expenses for all the people hurt in the limo crash, and subsequent fire in the sixty-story building, and that’s pretty much how we triggered the billion dollar insurance claim, which lead to AIG going bust, and all their customers filing claims, and the other insurers filing counter claims, such that various central banks disgorged their reserves, leading to massive unemployment and mega bailouts until every person in the world was drafted and every building was destroyed and the fires will rage for weeks.
But hey, I didn’t wreck the car! So at least we have a place to live.
Love,
Timmy G.
Fuck Larry Summers. I just read a paper from the early 90s and he was parroting the typical neoliberal, “our policies could never hurt anyone” line. Fuck him. Fuck him with something hard and long and sandpapery. He’s one of the fuckers who got us into this mess.