March 28, 2024, 03:50:58 AM *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: NEW CHILD BOARD CREATED IN THE POLITICAL SECTION FOR THE 2016 ELECTION
 
   Home   Help Login Register  
Pages: 1   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: The "Real" Problem with Tim Geithner  (Read 1845 times)
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
WhiskeyGirl
Monkey All Star Jr.
****
Offline Offline

Posts: 7754



« on: January 15, 2009, 12:45:08 PM »

"Tim Geithner is an awful choice for Treasury secretary, but not for the reasons other objectors are suggesting."

Quote
Geithner is accused of employing an immigrant with an elapsed work visa. From my perspective, this is a complete nonissue....

Geithner also reportedly failed to pay self employment taxes from 2001 to 2004, a shameful oversight for a man responsible for spending hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars over the past year in various bailout schemes...

What is the real problem?

Quote
The Real Bailout Czar

In an age of bailouts, Geithner is the original Bailout Czar. It was Geithner...who was the instrumental figure in arranging JP Morgan’s...takeover of Bear Stearns, a deal in which $29 billion of taxpayer money was pledged as a backstop against illiquid and toxic assets.

It wasn’t Hank Paulson, but rather Tim Geithner who put together the plan to have the government rescue AIG, to the tune of $85 billion and growing.

It has been widely noted Geithner was in favor of stepping in with taxpayer dollars to save Lehman Brothers. I guess it’s pretty easy to spend taxpayer dollars when you aren’t even paying your own taxes.

I was thinking it was the Bush Administration that 'fixed' all these bailouts...

Quote
If you are unfamiliar with Geithner, simply go the Federal Reserve’s web site to see a line-item balance sheet of his work: billions of tax dollars for AIG, Bear Stearns (look for “Maiden Lane LLC”; it’s the corporation created for Bear Stearns’s liquidation), commercial money markets and loans to primary dealers.

What Happened on His Watch

Of course, the financial deterioration at most of the large banks now begging for bailouts occurred under Geithner's watch as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. One could argue he missed the credit storm despite being in the catbird seat for more than five years.

He has, according to The Wall Street Journal, been looking for “as much firepower as possible” as Treasury secretary. Take note: That “firepower” is your tax dollars.

When will the NEW administration start fixing the problems?  Does the new administration have a secret weapon?  Maybe a money tree somewhere?

Quote
There is uniform agreement that the TARP -- along with all the trillions in bailouts and backstops that have gone along with it -- has been a complete disaster, as we predicted it would be from the start. Now Obama seems poised to rely on the guy who was responsible for getting this bailout train underway.

Wealth is not created because of a bailout, backstop or government stimulus plan. Geithner’s history suggests he believes government intervention is key to growing the economy.

It hasn’t worked since Bear Stearns. Eight trillion dollars later…why would it work now?


The old ways don't seem to be working, but are likely to continue under Obama.  When will the agent of change be elected?  After one term?  Two?   How much suffering will Americans endure for the next eight to ten years?

http://www.smartmoney.com/Investing/Stocks/Heres-Real-Problem-With-Geithner-for-Treasury/

The fires of financial destruction are still with the nation, being fueled by new spending and debt burden and FUTURE taxation.  How many years of poverty await?  How many years of lost opportunity?  How many years before common sense moves to Washington?

How many booster bags of the future will there be in the next four years?  When will they ever change? 

I'm not seeing how ANY of the future spending will be different from past spending.  Just more taxpayer money down the hole.

How many years before the winds of change are with us?  How many years to rebuild? 

Where is my billion dollar check?  Is it in the mail yet?  Maybe after January 20?

just my humble opinions
Logged

All my posts are just my humble opinions.  Please take with a grain of salt.  Smile

It doesn't do any good to hate anyone,
they'll end up in your family anyway...
WhiskeyGirl
Monkey All Star Jr.
****
Offline Offline

Posts: 7754



« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2009, 02:54:09 PM »

Gee...White House under orders not to delete emails...what of all these secret Geithner meetings?

Quote
Because the Fed conducts much of its work in secret, details about Geithner's role in the Citigroup debacle remain hidden. But a review of publicly available records shows that the New York Fed, in a key period, relaxed oversight as Citigroup went on a risky spree.


Quote
Yet poor risk management and weak capital levels were central to Citigroup's undoing. One enforcement agreement in place before Geithner took office in 2003 – an order requiring quarterly risk reports – was lifted during his watch. A ban on major acquisitions also was eliminated a year after it had been imposed in 2005.

Anyone in the new administration likely to push reform?  Or, just continue to unravel the reforms of the past and blame the Bush administration?  When will change come to Washington D.C.?  Change looks less and less likely with each passing day...

Quote
A year later, as the global financial crisis took hold, Citigroup took losses and writedowns of more than $50 billion. The New York Fed brought no public enforcement case, although examiners privately sent a critical letter to the company in the first half of 2008.

Quote
One, stemming from examinations in 2001 and 2002, involved allegations that Citigroup's consumer finance subsidiary converted personal loans into home equity loans without properly assessing credit risk. By May 2004, the Fed filed an action against Citigroup and ordered the firm to pay a record $70 million in penalties.

The other case involved Citigroup's role in helping Enron structure dubious off-balance sheet transactions that first propped up but later brought down the high-flying energy company. In July 2003, Citigroup agreed to pay $120 million to the SEC and entered into an agreement with the New York Fed to beef-up its risk management practices. Fed supervisors were to be informed of the company's progress every three months.

Citigroup's investment bank had run afoul of regulators around the world by 2004. Japanese supervisors forced the company to shut down a private bank. In Great Britain, Citigroup paid $25 million for an improper bond trading scheme, dubbed "Dr. Evil," that regulators said resulted from a corporate request "to increase profits by taking more proprietary market risk."


Was there any warning to Congress in 2005 that there MIGHT be a bad practice problem?  Any calls for reform?  What was the answer?  Who led the opposition party?  Who wasn't paying attention?

http://www.propublica.org/article/how-citigroup-unraveled-under-geithners-watch

I found the above linked article in a post at Huffington -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-tasini/forget-social-security-ta_b_158111.html

Isn't there anyone else qualified for this job?  Maybe someone willing to look out for taxpayer interests?  Someone willing to shout out the bad news and work for reform?

There was a book released this past year that discussed a new trend in business to hire people who aren't just 'team players'.  Why?  Someone needs to shout out the bad or questionable news.

Geithner is rewarded with a better job?  Why?  What happened to the "American's are hungry for change." mantra? 

jmho
Logged

All my posts are just my humble opinions.  Please take with a grain of salt.  Smile

It doesn't do any good to hate anyone,
they'll end up in your family anyway...
WhiskeyGirl
Monkey All Star Jr.
****
Offline Offline

Posts: 7754



« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2009, 03:03:42 PM »

From Huffington link  in previous post -

Quote
...what we need is SOUND JUDGMENT. Rubin judgment was dead wrong--and, rather than take responsibility as a leading architect in the mess we find ourselves in, he has either lied or simply been too cowardly to admit he was dead wrong, choosing instead to slip quietly (or, perhaps, he was pushed) from Citigroup at the very moment of crisis for the bank (how would you like to have Rubin in a foxhole in the heat of battle?).

Part of the problem is not venality (though greed is a strong motivating force). It's about group think and being part of the elite financial club. It's the conversations and requests that happen in private that contradict the grand public statements. The conversations that go something like: "look, cut us a little slack, we're in good shape, what we're doing will work out okay even if it's not totally up to regulatory standards".

The questions I think we need asked and answered are partly about the past but, more important, about the future. Can Geithner admit that he erred as head of the New York Fed in failing to exercise proper oversight over Citigroup? And, more important, what will happen in the future as we grapple with the effects of the financial crisis that will likely stretch well into a second Obama term and even beyond? How tough will Geithner be on the financial leaders and institutions? Beyond the grand public statements of a new toughness, what will Geithner do when confronted with the next new wave--and, believe me, it will happen as sure as the savings and loan crisis exploded in the 1980s--of madness driven by a group of people who are sure they can ride a bubble and defy the laws of sane economics. What will he do when asked to look the other way or cut a major financial institutions some slack?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-tasini/forget-social-security-ta_b_158111.html

I think that bankruptcy judge modifying mortgage and other loan and legal documents will be part of the next scandal.  Who appoints these judges?  Politicians?  Who looks out for taxpayers?  Who represents those (including taxpayers) that will be lose money with a stroke of the pen?  Or, push of a button?  Will these judges be collecting or expecting a return of money from those that sold the property?  The seller?  Why collect/punish the middle man?  Taxpayer?

Is my billion dollar bailout in the mail?  Mortgage for my billion dollar house I want reduced by the Obama administration to a more fair $5.00?

jmho
Logged

All my posts are just my humble opinions.  Please take with a grain of salt.  Smile

It doesn't do any good to hate anyone,
they'll end up in your family anyway...
Pages: 1   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Use of this web site in any manner signifies unconditional acceptance, without exception, of our terms of use.
Powered by SMF 1.1.13 | SMF © 2006-2011, Simple Machines LLC
 
Page created in 8.751 seconds with 19 queries.