Tim Geithner has a LOT on his plate, and very little help at this point

[Uzybone]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/business/economy/19geithner.html?hp

snip:

"Since before his confirmation in late January, Mr. Geithner has juggled a crushing workload: overhauling the Bush administration’s discredited financial bailout program; helping with Mr. Obama’s nearly $800 billion economic stimulus plan; and managing the government effort to salvage the auto industry.

Mr. Geithner is now fashioning a new federal regulatory structure for the financial industry to replace the one that failed. He has developed a housing program that aims to avert up to nine million more foreclosures, and programs for getting credit flowing to small businesses and consumers as well as the major financial giants.

At 47, the same age as the president, Mr. Geithner works out at 5:30 a.m., gets to his desk by 6:30 and leaves 15 hours later.

On Tuesday last week, as he prepared for a meeting in London of the finance ministers of the Group of 20 nations, Mr. Geithner learned that A.I.G. by Sunday would send out the bonuses to employees at its financial products unit, which developed the risky derivatives now blamed for the global credit crisis.

With few senior political appointees on hand, the word came from one of the numerous career civil servants who keep the Treasury functioning through changes of administration, according to an official.

Mr. Geithner consulted lawyers. They told him the government could not override the contracts that the insurance conglomerate had signed in early 2008, when its financial products unit already was fast losing money.

On Wednesday evening, Mr. Geithner called A.I.G.’s government-appointed chief executive, Edward M. Liddy, and demanded that he renegotiate payments. The next morning, Mr. Geithner informed White House advisers. Later that day a senior adviser, David Axelrod, informed the president.

On Friday, Mr. Liddy said he could not block the bonuses; he did agree to reduce future executive bonuses set for July 15 and Sept. 15. With Mr. Geithner in London, Treasury officials tried to manage the potential criticism by leaking word to selected news media on Saturday. On Sunday, the economic advisers went on TV."

[Thrill]

1. I've been saying, I will not judge him until

he gets his full team in place.

[firedupdem]

2. Agree...and this isn't run of the mill stuff they're dealing with either. n/t

[wackywaggin]

13. Agreed!!

I think that some are jumping to judgment too quickly!

[uponit7771]

14. That sounds fair...

[MarjorieG]

3. We need more of these reality checks; GOP slammed more for its deregulatory, don'r meddle actions.

[Clio the Leo]

4. thank you NT

[LakeSamish706]

5. What is holding Geithner from getting help? n/t

[Clio the Leo]

8. the vetting process.

Romer countered that a “huge professional career staff” is in place. Gregory then asked who in the Treasury Department beside Secretary Timothy Geithner is communicating with the banks. Romer answered that the Treasury Secretary is working to get people in place, and that the Obama administration is doing business in a different way. Strict rules and vetting requirements have tied their hands on some of the kinds of people they can hire, she said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/03/15/business/econwatch/entry4866763.shtml

The President never said change would be easy .... or even quick.

[Uzybone]

9. Finding people who cannot be pilloried by the press, GOP and lefty blogs

as being too close to the financial system. Everyone is waiting to play the gotcha game. See the reaction when he hired Lewis Alexander from Citibank.

[amandabeech]

10. Nina Totenberg said on "Inside Washington" on Friday

that the Senate Banking Committee is being very, very careful.

As well they should. They're probably still embarrassed about Geithner's tax problems, and three assistant secretary nominees have bowed out before the confirmation process for reasons unclear.

There have been quite a few defections from the Milton Friedman camp recently. Those folks would not be at home in the Obama economic team.

Then, there are probably a lot of people that Geithner knows on Wall Street, and few of them would want to run the gamut to confirmation considering what they or their close colleagues have done.

Then again, who wants to fail and success here is an iffy proposition, IMHO.

[Uzybone]

6. Not that we should feel too sorry for him

after all he knew it would be a tough job.

But think about it, If you were Treasury Secretary, and you were preparing for the G20 meeting in the midst of a global financial crisis, how much time would you spend chasing down bonuses?

[amandabeech]

11. Those bonuses are a huge political problem and a moral hazard.

No one is talking about the G-20 when scumbags got huge bonuses. It's a republican talking point, sure, but it's a great one. Everyone understands this. What percentage of voters do you think even know about the G-20.

Geithner is no politician, and he should have one shadowing him all day because this is the hot topic and it's not going away. Geithner should have called Obama immediately when he found out about these bonuses. Instead, Axelrod told Obama a day later, and Obama has been behind the curve on this one ever since.

[4lbs]

7. No wait, we can't have reasoned discussion here. It's better just to go with the histrionic

"Geithner sucks!!!111!!!111!!!!" thought.

[jeanpalmer]

12. For me it's not the bonuses

The bonuses are petty cash. A lightning rod for sure, but very small overall in the scheme of things. Now funneling $13 billion to Goldman Sachs, and billions more to the other banks, through AIG is a major item. Right away, when he saw that, red flags should have gone up. Immediately it should have occurred to him that that kind of payoff to one of the chief architects of the current problem using taxpayer funds was unconscionable. The fact that it didn't bother him, and that he did nothing about it, and kept it secret, disqualifies him from serving. He is incapable of representing the public interest.

[Kdillard]

15. Kick and rec. I can't believe some of the histrionics coming from DU

about Geithner when we know the shitpile left on his desk and the fact that he is working without a full team.

[dkf]

16. So whose fault is it that Geithner doesn't have help yet?

I can't believe that if this was made the number one priority in the entire Government that we couldn't find 18 people in the United States clean enough to do these jobs.

Does anyone believe the understaffing of the Treasury is of no consequence?

[bread_and_roses]

17. yeah, it's "hard work" shoveling the Banksters losses onto the backs of workers

Every time he shovels out one pile of shit he finds another even bigger behind it! The poor man must feel like Sisyphus! Good thing the workers are used to heavy loads! After all, the Masters of the Universe couldn't be expected to carry that weight - not in their expensive suits and all! What a thought!