by Ari Rutenberg
I've spent the last few days trying to find out who Tim Geithner, Obama'a pick for Secretary of Treasury, really is. Wall Street seems to like him, which could be a very bad omen. But so do a lot of left-wing bloggers, at least on the face. I found a great article by Chinese-American economist Ann Lee from late 2007 which is not only prescient in its discussion of the impending crisis, but offers solutions that would have prevented it.
Anyway her thoughts on Geithner are as follows (from the HuffPost):
"They will only provide transparency if they are forced to do so.
Unfortunately, Tim Geithner, the NY Fed President, is not the one who
will have the guts to get tough on banks since it was his former boss
Bob Rubin who installed him in that lofty position and who now needs
him to return the favor as Citicorp is falling apart. It isn't a
coincidence that politicians and regulators can talk all they want
about a need for transparency, but they don't spell it out, and they
don't make it happen."
Uh-oh. Looks like Cohen's right about this one.
