Being Timothy Geithner

From the beginning I was no fan of Timothy Geithner and have written of my distrust of his policies or lack thereof more than once here. But having read the New York Times article over the weekend about Mr. Geithner's close ties with Wall Street bank executives over the five years he was head of the New York Fed angered me all over again. This was during a time that he should have been aware of what was going on but he seemed either unaware or unconcerned. He did nothing. Then I remembered how his nomination was passed, even after it became public that he had not paid his taxes. He would become the Treasury Secretary anyway, probably because he was the handpicked Wall Street insider and these big banks gave so much money to the campaigns of those in Washington. This too added to my increasing annoyance over the weekend.

Jo Becker and Gretchen Morgenson, authors of the New York Times article, writes that "an examination of Mr. Geithner’s five years as president of the New York Fed, an era of unbridled and ultimately disastrous risk-taking by the financial industry, shows that he forged unusually close relationships with executives of Wall Street’s giant financial institutions. His actions, as a regulator and later a bailout king, often aligned with the industry’s interests and desires, according to interviews with financiers, regulators and analysts and a review of Federal Reserve records."

So, tell me, how can Mr. Geithner be trusted with the public's interest?