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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Katelew who wrote (103769)	2/10/2009 8:36:31 PM
From: Bread Upon The Water	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542147

K: Also was discouraged by Geithner's lack of gravitas. V: Yes, he sounds and looks like some grad student. But then again maybe it's becaue we're---er uh--I mean--I'm older. K: One was that he basically admitted that many of our largest banks are indeed insolvent and that he's going to rip the kimonos off them and expose their balance sheets V: I got the impression that was the last thing he wanted lest the illusion that things were really, with some help, viable concerns would be totally negated--cause a financial panic even. This was late in his testimony-after 4PM EST.

To: Katelew who wrote (103769)	2/10/2009 9:23:01 PM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542147

<<<. Even without his tax blemishes, Geithner will likely never command the market respect needed going forward.>>> It is not like he is Treasury Secretary in a Bush administration. First of all Obama is engaged and is likely to understand a lot of the stuff. And then there is Summers and Volcker. I don't think Tim is going to get away with anything that is not thought out. Even though I don't understand all the issues, and there are a lot of stuff I am never going to be able to understand, I think I can judge people well enough. The Obama economic team has the knowledge, intelligence, and the experience to do the job. They are also free of emotional hangups. This does not mean they could not be wrong, but it is the way I am going to have to make my bet.

To: Katelew who wrote (103769)	2/10/2009 10:23:29 PM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 542147

All and all, though, it was a very bad day for the Obama administration. Even without his tax blemishes, Geithner will likely never command the market respect needed going forward. I've been involved in other things today and haven't watched the news very much. Didn't see Geithner nor the followup commentary. What you say doesn't trouble me, however. I've never expected Geithner to be a crowd pleaser; if anything he's a geek, to use an old term. But if he's as smart as advertised, that's good. I can take a Treasury Secretary who knows what he's doing (if that's the case, and we are a long way from having enough evidence on that score). I still think we are all in much too much of a hurry to make a score card for the Obama administration. As if it's been in power for a year or two. I saw a bit of commentary tonight on MSNBC, just before I left for a meeting, in which Obama was being criticized for having lost control of the stimulus debate in the first two or three days. And, of course, his administration was thus in trouble. And we were free to make large scale judgments on that basis. Good thing I had to run out at that point. So are you past all the ice stuff, Kate?