more of the same

Geithner choice is ‘more of the same’ — was Paulson’s bailout cohort

by John Berlau on November 21, 2008 · 2 comments

in Bailout Watch, Politics as Usual

If news accounts are true, and Presidet-Elect Barack Obama has indeed decided on Timothy F. Geithner to be his Treasury Secretary nominee, it represents a giant step away from Obama’s promise of “change you can believe in.”

The Geithner nomination would be “more of the same” in almost every respect — more bailouts, more lack of transparency in the bailouts, and more corporate welfare. Geithner was the architect of the Bear Stearns bailout and cohort of Treasury Secretary Paulson in American International Group and the TARP bailouts. In choosing Geithner, Obama might as well have nominated Hank Paulson to another term!

Geithner’s financial qualifications are in many respects quite thin. He has never been a banker nor an academic economist. As liberal columnist Robert Kuttner noted recently in the American Prospect, Geither “has neither a doctorate in economics nor an M.B.A.”

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