Tim Geithner History

Tim Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, has serious problems resulting from decisions he made as the Director New York Federal Reserve. Looking at his background may help to understand the influences that have resulted in using poor judgment time and time again. Geithner was born in 1961, in Brooklyn, NY, but spent most of his youth in other countries, primarily Asian countries. His father, Peter F. Geithner, was the director of the Asia program at the Ford Foundation in the 1990s. His mother is a pianist and piano teacher. He apparently adapted well to the numerous moves and enjoyed sports.

Geithner’s career background is essentially in the public sector, and he has knowledge of Wall Street also. He graduated from Dartmouth College, and has an M.A. from John Hopkins University with an emphasis in international studies, not economics. His first job was as an apprentice with Henry Kissinger at Kissinger Associates.

In 1988, he joined the Treasury Department in the International Affairs division. From 1995-1998, he was deputy secretary for international monetary and financial policy being promoted annually until he became assistant secretary for international affairs. At this point he became an aide to Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin, Treasury secretaries in the Clinton administration. Mr. Summers is now the Director of the White House's National Economic Council for Obama.

In 2002, Geithner left the Treasury to join the Council on Foreign Relations as a Senior Fellow, and in 2003, he became the director of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the most powerful of the government’s 12 regional banks.

Geithner was instrumental in the talks that led to the Federal Reserve’s loan of $29 billion to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in its buyout of the assets of Bear Sterns. The CEO and chairman of J. P. Morgan and he was also a member of the board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. This is obviously a conflict of interest.

The Senate voted 60-34 for Geithner to assume the role of Treasury Secretary despite the fact that he failed to pay taxes on income received from the International Monetary Fund in 2001 and in three subsequent years. He quickly paid the taxes and penalties before he took the position. Geithner was sworn in an hour later as Obama stated, “We can’t waste a day” as the economy is in “dangerous jeopardy.”

Geithner has been a key figure in all of the bailouts and “he seeks to rebuild the nation’s fractured financial system with more taxpayer assistance and a regulatory overhaul, he finds himself a locus of discontent.” Even his former colleagues are critical of many decisions as they have such intrusive strings attached to loans. He has an unusually close relationship with the executives of Wall Street institutions. He has friendships with many of the CEO’s is often seen in social situations with them. He is now known as the Bailout King, of course, at tax payer expense. He has too much power, and one must question his honesty and objectivity for the position of Treasury Secretary.

Treasure Secretary, Tim Geithner was pummeled with questions and accusations as expected by of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Geithner was one of the original architects of the government response in 2008, to the financial crisis as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The troubled insurer, AIG, tried to publicly disclose these details in December 2008, before being thwarted by the Geithner

Geithner took the pummeling from both sides of the aisle. “Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, suggested Geithner was more beholden to banking interests than to taxpayers when he ran the New York Fed and cut him off abruptly when he tried to deny it.” Geithner continued throughout the day to deny any wrong doing despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. It doesn’t appear Geithner has been hung out to dry by this administration if Obama’s hug to him last night at the State of the Union speech is an indicator.

One would assume what Geithner did is illegal, unethical, reprehensible and so forth. I would think jail time might be a possibility. His actions should at the very least be a careerender, but in Washington this is not about to happen. Laws seem to for the common man and not to those that hold public office.

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