Why Does Tim Geithner Still Have a Job?
The fact that 
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is staying on the job is supposed to be good news because it means "continuity in economic policy." Does anyone seriously think these economic policies should be continued?
Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York prior to heading the Treasury Department, has been involved in the financial mess since the beginning. In the administration he has consistently won over President Obama and is architect of the response to the crisis. Among his many accomplishments: Preventing the government from directly taking over struggling banks. This hasn't gotten the U.S. taxpayer off the hook, but it has left the administration powerless to make banks increase lending.
Two years ago -- when the just-ended bull-shot market began -- Geithner was saying enough had been done to stabilize the economy and we were heading towards a rapid recovery. He also thought the principal economic problems were going to be avoiding inflation and dealing with the budget deficit. Commentary on how that all turned out would be superfluous.
Familiarity leads to contempt
Some see Geithner's familiarity with our current woes as a plus. One former Treasury official has praised the Secretary's "deep experience in dealing with crisis." Experience is a good thing, but experience leading to results is even better. Surviving a plane crash is no reason to hire someone as a pilot.
Surviving is clearly one of Geithner's strengths. He is the last person still riding the administration's economic adviser merry-go-round. Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, is about to join a number of others who have added the word "former" to their titles:
- Larry Summers, the first director of the National Economic Council
- Christina Romer, Goolsbee's predecessor
- The administration's first budget chief Peter Orszag
- Jared Bernstein, who was top economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.
Geithner has made it clear it's not his fault he's still on the job. (He really wanted to move back to Goldman-Sachs (GS), and who can blame him?) As he told The New York Times:
I believe in this president, John. I believe in what he's trying to do for the country. I love my work. And I think if a president asks you to serve, you have to do it. And we have men and women dying to protect the country in Afghanistan. We have unemployment above 9 percent. Still trying to heal the scars of this crisis. We have a lot of work to do.Not quite sure what he has in common with troops in Afghanistan. Still the underlying message is clear: "Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in." Geithner's military reference suggests an unfortunate comparison with another administration appointee: former-general-turned-CIA-boss David Petraeus. Of course Petraeus was promoted because his policies worked.
What a novel idea.
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