Behold the power of finance capital. Despite shitting the bed and making us all clean it up, Wall Street will remain essentially the same as the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) caved to the banksters and will continue to allow a cartel to control the derivatives market.

Tim Geithner’s first post-Treasury Secretary job will be as a “distinguished fellow” at the Council On Foreign Relations. For the uninitiated, the Council On Foreign Relations is a more or less open conspiracy to use the American government as a vessel for advancing Big Business’ interests abroad. CFR represents America’s commercial oligarchy in all its glory. And as the power has shifted within the American business community to finance capital so too has CFR come to be dominated by Wall Street’s agenda and personnel.

The failure of the Treasury Department under Tim Geithner to rein in bonuses for companies bailed out by taxpayers has been an issue since TARP began.

Geithner is a perfect counterpart for the execrable Lanny Breuer: he provides the cover Breuer needed not to prosecute any Wall Street executives or their employers.

Transcripts released by the Federal Reserve reveal the central bank misinterpreted the downswing in the housing market as a positive signal of the market pricing in risk rather than the beginning of a bust that would quickly unravel the financial markets.

Congress’ failure to pass a debt ceiling bill has lead to the Treasury Department taking “extraordinary measures” to continue to pay the nation’s debts. Treasury Secretary Geithner has now written a letter to Congress saying his is running out of tricks.

ack Lew, veteran of Citigroup and current White House Chief of Staff, will be our next Treasury Secretary.

A long and storied career of betraying the public interest to serve Wall Street greed will end this month.

In what borders on performance art, AIG is launching a condescendingpublic relations campaign to thank American taxpayers for letting them extort bailout money from Congress.

There is some joy to be taken in the fact that nobody was able to harpoon the elusive white whale of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and that somewhere Pete Peterson weeps.

But we are, as the HuffPo notes, in a permanent state of “cliff crisis” now. Timothy Geithner says the debt limit has once again been reached, and Peterson can take solace in the fact that Obama’s resolve not to negotiate with Republicans over the debt ceiling is indeed just as strong as his commitment not to negotiate over taxes for the rich.