If anyone in the US media had thought to ask a former Australian prime minister for his assessment, they would have heard a different view. And they would not have been so surprised at Geithner’s performance since.
In a speech to a closed gathering at the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Thursday, Paul Keating gave a starkly different account of Geithner’s record in handling the Asian crisis: “Tim Geithner was the Treasury line officer who wrote the IMF [International Monetary Fund] program for Indonesia in 1997-98, which was to apply current account solutions to a capital account crisis.”
In other words, Geithner fundamentally misdiagnosed the problem. And his misdiagnosis led to a dreadfully wrong prescription.
So it appears he is not only a tax cheat, but also incompetent – a true double threat guy! Just the jungle guide we need to lead us out of the woods.
Dilbertnomore [#1]: Would you favor us with insight into the relative merits of the current-account and capital-account diagnoses?
Irene, as you well know, the article gives a perfectly coherent description of the variation between a current account crisis and a capital account crisis. You can find it at the bottom of the first page of the article continuing onto the top of the second.
I’m not playing ‘gotcha’ with you. This topic is much too important for that. Nice try.
Bottom line is Geithner most certainly is a bona fide federal income tax cheat who is now in charge of collecting federal income taxes (in addition to the many other flavors of taxes collected by Uncle Sam) from all of us as well as enforcing compliance with the full coercion the law (which he scoffed at) affords. He (and others in this Administration) has been given ‘kid glove’ treatment over their blatant tax evasion that would you or me in a federal penitentiary This is well documented truth and not subject to negotiation or smoothing over. Period. Full stop.
But Geithner is also apparently a ‘2fer’. From this article, it seems reasonable to assume he also doesn’t know the south end of his alimentary canal from hole in the ground in his area of professed expertise. And this is the guy who Mr. Obama absolutely had to have as his Treasury Secretary to give the American people the confidence needed to get them behind the Administration’s solution (whatever that may turn out to be – see the recent ‘Saturday Night Live’ opening for a clue what the source of that may well be). Geithner’s ‘expertise’ seems to be as fabricated as his tax returns.
Until proven otherwise, Geithner is just another Obama Administration empty suit, starting with the guy at the top.
Elections have consequences. 52% of us voted for this situation. You know who you are. God help us all.
[i] [Geithner] doesn’t know the south end of his alimentary canal from hole in the ground in his area of professed expertise [/i] —Dilbertnomore
Dilbertnomore [#2]: A broad range of experts, both American and foreign, supported U.S. policy toward Indonesia. Geithner’s superiors were David Lipton, Lawrence Summers, and Robert Rubin. Lipton and Summers are internationally recognized economists, and Lipton is an expert in dealing with this sort of problem. They worked closely with their counterparts at the Federal Reserve and in other industrialized democratic countries. If Geithner was wrong, so were the others. That’s hardly enough to warrant your calling him “stupid.”
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I’d considered writing a fuller response to your comment. But your reference to me as “Irene” indicates that attempting to discuss facts and ideas with you makes even less sense than usual.
Irenaeus, one must note all Geithner’s superiors cited above are all Democrats serving in the Clinton Administration and, also, all wrong right along with their flunky, Geithner. You’re not making your case with this line of reasoning, are you? Try again?
Dilbertnomore [#5]: Is there anything Christian about the tone or substance of your comments on this thread? Anything that gives glory to Christ?
Irenaeus, good morning. Rebuke of wrong is fully Christian and requires no apology.
Geithner is a tax cheat. That is a fact.
He was appointed by the President to the position of Treasury Secretary and confirmed by the Senate despite his clear moral unsuitability for that position. The excuse given for pressing his appointment and confirmation centered around his competence and essentiality to the job at hand. It has now been demonstrated Geithner, in fact, does not actually have the stellar performance history of packing the gear that could justify the President’s and the Senate’s decision to seat him as Treasury Secretary. So we are now left with an ideological tax cheat with dubious professional credentials heading what is for the moment our most critical cabinet post.
Who knew?
Barack Obama knew or should have known. The Senate knew or should have known.
Elections have consequences. 52% of us voted for this approach to solve our problems. God help us in our time of trouble created by flawed men.
So much for the “brilliant” cabinet picks of the current administration. To whom may we attribute the lack of reporting on the true nature of Mr. Geithner?