Posts tagged “Tim Geithner”
Fun With Presidential Appointments
I don’t think I’ve been surprised to the upside about anything that Obama has ever done, but this comes the closest: President Obama will renominate Dawn Johnsen to serve as one of the Justice Department’s top officials, TPMDC has learned. A White House official confirms that Obama will renominate Johnsen, along with a handful of [...]
Depends on the Definition of Change
Josh Marshall links to this WaPo story and entitles it “Change”: The new policy — issued with little fanfare this fall by the White House ethics counsel — may turn out to be the most far-reaching lobbying rule change so far from President Obama, who also has sought to restrict the ability of lobbyists to [...]
The Rules
Obama Aide Declines Visit to Bank Board – New York Times (7/20/09) The White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, has decided not to speak to the board of JPMorgan Chase when it meets here on Monday, he said Sunday after considering the invitation for several days. Mr. Emanuel is a longtime acquaintance of the [...]
A Ph.D. In Simply Not Getting It
On his resume, Vikram Pandit only claims to have a Ph.D. in Finance from Columbia Business School. But it is increasingly becoming clear that he must also have a second Ph.D., even though he doesn’t like to boast about it. A Ph.D. in Simply Not Getting It. After all those losses and bailouts, rank-and-file employees [...]
Tom Daschle’s Carefully Nuanced Prediction
Remember how Tom Daschle used to be Tim Geithner‘s identical twin? How both of them had cheated on their taxes? And how both of them were uniquely qualified to do the jobs that Obama had picked them for, Geithner to restore the economy to the pink of health, and Daschle to shepherd Obama’s dream healthcare [...]
Depends on the Definition of We
Treasury Secretary and self-proclaimed free-market ideologue Tim Geithner (1/29/09): “We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we’d like to do our best to preserve that system,” he said. President Barack Obama (4/14/09): The reason we have not taken this step has nothing to do with any [...]
Extortion, Nullification And Other Washington Games
(1) How is this not extortion? Sens. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) announced today that “they are blocking President Barack Obama’s nomination of Ashton Carter as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.” The senators want assurances that Carter will not “change the criteria” on which the Pentagon considers a refueling [...]
Confidence Game
Carrots for banks, sticks for autos – Politico (3/30/09): “The likelihood of failure here is too high to invest any more political or financial capital at the moment,” said a Democratic official close to the White House. “For all the negative aspects of structured bankruptcy [a likely outcome for GM], it doesn’t necessarily collapse the [...]
Timing The News Market
The New York Times has a story in today’s paper that will probably attract some attention. That’s despite being buried on page 4 of the Business section. The headline reads: A.I.G. Sues U.S. for Return of $306 Million in Tax Payments . Something about that will probably strike a political nerve, one imagines. While the [...]
Bonus Payments Need A New Name
Nobody has ever pretended that the $165 million AIG paid out in bonuses to employees of their London unit — the unit which caused all the losses which required the spectacular and ongoing bailout of the company — constitute a conventional performance bonus. What they did pretend — and this has been a common pretense [...]