We’ve got a great revolving door between Washington and Wall Street, and the latest mover is Timothy Geithner. He’s got a ticket to fabulous wealth and he is going to use it. He has made his move to cash in.
USA Today gives details of his new gig and how he is set to make millions thanks to help from big banks he used to regulate. Please see the article as I am constrained by fair use.
Is there any wonder why there is a huge public backlash against these cozy relationships, spearheaded by Sanders and Warren, but also forcing Hillary Clinton to at least talk tough about Wall Street?
Geithner of course was the Treasury secretary who pushed the bailout of the big banks, including JPMorgan, in the wake of the financial crisis, beating off anyone who wanted to discipline the banks or punish their executives with the argument that doing so would further destabilize the financial system.
His cosseting of the banks brought him into conflict with the chairman of the bailout oversight panel, Elizabeth Warren, the future senator from Massachusetts, and the inspector general for the program, Neil Barofsky, as well as one of the top bank regulators, then-FDIC chairman Sheila Bair — all of whom have documented their clashes with Geithner in recent books.
Geithner also failed to execute the government’s plan for mortgage relief to individuals in order to shelter the banks from losses, one of the reasons Barofsky titled his book Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street.
Let’s make him the poster child for much of what ails our current financial system. Bernie pledged this weekend to look elsewhere than Wall Street for top cabinet officials. This is certainly a pledge to move in the right direction.