Comments on: Geithner at Treasury: Decent But Uninspired

By: canuck

canuck — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:03:38 +0000

His http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_F._Geithner Wikipedia bio reveals that he graduated from High School in Thailand, studied Japanese and Chinese and lived in East Africa, India, Thailand, China, and Japan. Promising that at a minimum, Geithner wasn’t a previous employee of Goldman Sachs like almost all the rest of them at Treasury.

By: MarkH

MarkH — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:03:00 +0000

What do today’s economists think of placing a small tax on hoarded monies? Can we spur activity safely?

By: MarkH

MarkH — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:59:43 +0000

In a nutshell the Treasury is sucking all the free money out of the system and making things worse. All in the name of saving old stuff, not one penny going into the real economy. …

…

This is all before any stimulus package mind you.

And, money for a stimulus or rescue plan of any kind will have to be borrowed too.

This situation is what the word ‘precipice’ means.

Stimulus to build infrastructure AND put money in people’s pockets seems like a good idea for both short and long-run. Printing more money will be tempting, but memories of the Weimar Republic will prevent it.

Know of any better idea for now?

By: MarkH

MarkH — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:53:14 +0000

The CNBS open-mouth operations

I think most people under-appreciate how much is communicated if you’re only capable of listening and connecting some dots.

Some people think the Executive Order enabling prez W to take over in an economic crisis is news. I was discussing Executive Orders and their risk with friends back in 1992. I won’t criticize though. With all the noise in our society it’s hard to have room to listen and think.

By: AngryB

AngryB — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:55:13 +0000

Yea, but i believe you can still impeach a “retired” president – that would make him unique in the history books, which even he couldn’t ignore.

By: DBaker

DBaker — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:50:30 +0000

Yes I have and if you look at RGE he was on top of this (just like Dean Baker was, for another example) for years.

By: muleboy303

muleboy303 — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:27:55 +0000

not at all, ’tis quite possible that TG spoke up vehemently and was overruled. yet it is clear that the sum of the institutional memory of those in the room deciding the fate of Lehman Brothers, including Geithner, failed to adequately weigh his words from 2004. (though one must always remember that in the W Administration, political considerations always come first, and since JEB was an integral part of LBros, they may well have thought the political consequences were potentially too severe to bail out the POTUS’ brother)

By: prostratedragon

prostratedragon — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:19:56 +0000

You know that he forgot it?

By: muleboy303

muleboy303 — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:40:07 +0000

“Greater concentration in the finance industry which has also occured has increased the risk to the whole system from the failure of even just one crtically-placed institution”

strikes me as a most curious thing to assert in March 2004 and then forget/ignore when deliberating the future of Lehman Brothers in August of 2008

By: prostratedragon

prostratedragon — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:23:08 +0000

‘Scuse me, that full quote is actually

Supervision and regulation, and the enforcement response to management failures, should help strengthen the incentives for a stronger compliance infrastructure, but they cannot insulate firms from the consequences of reputational damage.

which is only somewhat like my accusation.