Laughter Over Geithner's Plan

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/mcconnell-burst-laughter-geithner-outlined-obamas-plan_664210.html

McConnell 'Burst Into Laughter' as Geithner Outlined Obama's Plan
6:14 PM, NOV 29, 2012
BY FRED BARNES

Geithner's Money Printing War

[From article]
"Indeed, a recent survey showed that fewer than one in twenty Americans knew the value of the euro. Politically, it's a lot easier to devalue a currency when the populace doesn't know what it's worth in the first place.

All of this money printing can be wildly inflationary, which is one reason why the voting members of the Federal Reserve have been deeply divided on the question of currency debasement,
[. . .]
Of course, all of this money-printing can go horribly wrong."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/tim_secret_war_FISPJFQLut7Gosdxj1LhRN

Tim's secret war
Geithner eyes a weaker dollar to combat recession
Terry Keenan
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:33 AM, October 25, 2010
Posted: 10:52 PM, October 23, 2010

Obama Clueless About Business

[From article]
“The chief business of the American people is business,” Calvin Coolidge said in 1925. The words are as true today as they were then. But Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, was obliged to provide an unfortunate update. The FT reported that he had said that “Business did not like the US president and the president did not like business.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/tim_geithner_excuses_for_obama_FLoZzopA7SwqzKRwvRfevJ

Tim Geithner's excuses for Obama

They can't cover up the president's distaste for private industry

Kyle Smith
New York Post

Last Updated: 5:20 AM, July 11, 2010

Posted: 1:14 AM, July 11, 2010

Tax Cheat Treasury Secretary Defies US Court Order

The intelligentsia is comfortable with the frame-up of four white men by dirt-bag FBI agents who know taxpayer funds will pay for their criminal acts. Obama's admitted tax cheat Treasury Secretary withholds payment. Is he helping the racially biased US AG try to force Limone and Salvati to commit crimes? Obama's thugocracy indicates they have little concern for due process rights. If citizens are accused of a crime why not frame them for murder? If the frame-up is exposed other people's money will pay. Don't worry. Be happy. Hope and Change are here.

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1265753

Feds ordered to write $19M check to mobster

By Laurel J. Sweet
Boston Herald
Monday, July 5, 2010

Tax Cheat Runs the IRS

A few years ago there was a beautiful picture of another Vet who invested his money in a business. His lawyer was negligent or simply a thief. The photo showed the Vet marching the lawyer to the police station with a shotgun at the back of his head with a wire attached so that he could not get away from the weapon. The IRS is run by Time Geithner, a tax cheat. The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee which writes tax laws is Charles Rangel, a tax cheat. Why should ordinary citizens pay their taxes when government pigs do not?

http://bostonherald.com/news/national/southwest/view.bg?articleid=1234820

Pilot’s daughter backtracks

By Associated Press
Boston Herald
Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Tim Geithner Talks Till He Walks

"Not a single member of either political party cut [Stammering Hank Paulson and Tim "Dead Man Talking" Geithner] any slack. As we used to say in Brooklyn, Paulson and Geithner got their asses kicked.
Isn't it amazing how a little fear of losing an election can snap even the laziest politicians into action?
[. . .]
I'd be shocked if Tim Geithner, lasts much longer as Treasury Secretary.
His mouth keeps moving, but Geithner continues to say incredibly stupid things -- like, insisting again yesterday that he in herited today's financial problems when in fact he was head of the New York Fed when this mess started."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/what_congress_missed_at_aig_geithner_H1rhDxyH4vrcOMONwmkjxO

What Congress missed at AIG-Geithner hearing

New York Post

Last Updated: 7:14 AM, January 28, 2010

Posted: 1:39 AM, January 28, 2010

Stammering<p> </p><br>Hank Paulsonand<p> </p><br>Tim"Dead Man Talking"<p> </p><br>Geithnercouldn't wait to get out of the witness chair yesterday when they appeared before the House Oversight Committee.<p> </p><br> The former and current Treasury secretaries were grilled separately, in one of the few bipartisan events since<p> </p><br>President Obamatook office.<p> </p><br> Not a single member of either political party cut these two guys any slack. As we used to say in Brooklyn, Paulson and Geithner got their asses kicked.<p> </p><br> Isn't it amazing how a little fear of losing an election can snap even the laziest politicians into action?<p> </p><br> As a matter of course, one congressman yesterday brought up Geithner's past tax troubles. And everyone mentioned the apparent conflict of interest that occurred when AIG was bailed out by taxpayers and Goldman Sachs -- Paulson's old firm -- just happened to score enormous benefits.<p> </p><br> At one point, Paulson was asked to stay for an additional eight minutes of questioning. When the clock hit 10 minutes, Paulson asked to be excused like he suddenly had a bathroom emergency.<p> </p><br> But Paulson and Geithner were very lucky that their interrogators really didn't know what they were doing, so they took their inquisition down a dead end.<p> </p><br> What do I mean? The main line of questioning is about AIG, the insurance company that invested in risky stuff and needed taxpayers to save its behind.<p> </p><br> Not only did companies like Goldman, which invested on the other side of AIG trades, get all of their money back, but it turns out the New York Fed decided to keep details of the deals secret.<p> </p><br> That's all very interesting stuff. The problem is, Paulson and Geithner have an easy explanation that they invoked over and over.<p> </p><br> At various times the two either proclaimed that they weren't the ones who negotiated the AIG deal or -- and this is the real winner -- the whole freakin' financial world would have fallen apart if the AIG bailout hadn't occurred.<p> </p><br> In other words, Paulson and Geithner were saying: Why are you people bothering us? You should be giving us a ticker-tape parade.<p> </p><br> "If, if, if, if AIG had failed, with the system as fragile as it was, I believe it would have taken down the whole financial system and the economy," Paulson said at one point. And in case that didn't frighten you enough, Paulson was nice enough to provide threatening numbers -- 25 percent unemployment instead of the current 10 percent and housing prices "much lower" than they are today.<p> </p><br> "This would have been an economic nightmare," Paulson said.<p> </p><br> The best anyone could say about Geithner's performance is that he didn't start crying when one member of the committee accused him of being a politician and another cut him short by repeating, "you've answered the question, you've answered the question."<p> </p><br> AIG is a dead end. The culprits can argue that they were under a lot of pressure and even if mistakes were made, they were honest ones.<p> </p><br> But there's nothing honest about Paulson's habit of phoning up friends on Wall Street when he got the itch. There is nothing Paulson and someone like<p> </p><br>Lloyd Blankfein, his successor at Goldman, could have spoken about -- six times, for instance, on Sept. 18, 2008 -- that would not have been inside information.<p> </p><br> If others are prosecuted for having information that the public doesn't, why is it that Goldman had a hot line to the Treasury?<p> </p><br> Was this very profitable financial institution suddenly invested with certain quasi-government powers?<p> </p><br> If you look through Paulson's phone logs, there are dozens upon dozens of calls made between Blankfein and Paulson during the latter's tenure as Treasury secretary.<p> </p><br> And those calls don't even include ones likely made on cell phones. One congressman said during yesterday's hearing that Geithner also made hundreds of calls to Goldman Sachs during the AIG timeframe. Or, as he put it, 103 calls to Goldman and 100 calls to Fed Chairman<p> </p><br>Ben Bernanke.<p> </p><br> I'd be shocked if Tim Geithner, lasts much longer as Treasury Secretary.<p> </p><br> His mouth keeps moving, but Geithner continues to say incredibly stupid things -- like, insisting again yesterday that he in herited today's financial problems when in fact he was head of the New York Fed when this mess started.<p> </p><br>john.crudele@nypost.com <p> </p><br>

John Crudele

No Accountability for Geithner

"From 2003 until his 2009 appointment as Treasury secretary, Geithner served as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The New York Fed's role as the top Wall Street watchdog can't be overstated -- so if regulatory failure contributed to the recent financial crisis, then few regulators contributed more than the New York Fed and its chief, Tim Geithner.

[. . .]

 Only a handful of individuals could truly be called architects of our financial-regulatory system. Geithner, without a doubt, is one. To pretend he just now arrived on the scene is not only dishonest, it's dangerous."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/geithner_lifelong_love_of_bailouts_rweqUPQK9EIongrU8AMtfK

Geithner's lifelong love of bailouts

By MARK A. CALABRIA

New York Post

Last Updated: 5:54 PM, January 20, 2010

Posted: 1:30 AM, January 20, 2010

How Long Will Geithner Last?


"Tim Geithner should not only be fired as Treasury Secretary, he should then be investigated for criminal activity -- i.e. illegal collusion with Wall Street -- once he's safely away from government.
[. . .]
We should have known that Geithner's reign would have problems when it was disclosed before his confirmation as Treasury secretary that he failed to pay some income taxes."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/why_treasury_chief_should_be_probed_Ow3AcCDG3r8cr50GbGBXgL

Why Treasury chief should be probed and fired
John Crudele
New York Post
Last Updated: 5:49 AM, January 14, 2010
Posted: 1:31 AM, January 14, 2010

Geithner Represents the Banks


"You'll see why taxpayers sense something is very wrong about this story, and rightly so. As we're now learning by the day, Goldman nearly bankrupted AIG in the fall of 2008 -- much as YRC's credit default holders almost bankrupt that company last month. The key difference is that in AIG's case, the taxpayer was left holding the bag, while Goldman and AIG live to trade another day.

But it gets worse. Not only did AIG pay off those contracts to Goldman and a dozen other banks to the tune of 100 cents on the dollar -- or a remarkable $62 billion -- Geithner's NY Fed insisted AIG cross out any reference to the full price of the payout. As e-mails released by Congress last week show, the idea was to keep the public in the dark. The final cost to taxpayers from the AIG rescue -- $182 billion, or about half of the entire US defense budget."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/treasury_sec_could_learn_from_teamster_5FgjrMUoX98EVMfptjoJfJ

Treasury secretary could learn from Teamster Hoffa
Hoffa shows Geithner how to run things
Terry Keenan
New York Post
Last Updated: 2:52 AM, January 12, 2010
Posted: 11:47 PM, January 9, 2010

Government Works Against Taxpayers


"Taxpayers gave new car dealers $4,500 for each clunker that was surrendered.

The auto industry and its dealers have already made out very well.

But on top of the $4,500, the dealers are now being paid several hundred dollars by salvagers who wanted the clunkers -- sans useful engines -- for their inventory.

The salvagers then make hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars, from each clunker's parts."
[. . .]
"A Republican congressman from Georgia recently said that any taxpayer that owes penalties on foreign earnings should be given a pass because Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner got a break on his taxes.

John Carter, a former judge, says that equal protection granted under the 14th Amendment is the reason he is proposing the Geithner Penalty Waiver.

I think that all insider-trading laws should also be revoked until we find out how much privileged information was given to Goldman Sachs and others by friends at the Treasury and Fed."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/more_pain_from_the_cash_for_clunkers_eMbUhmjilQ9PwoMGQHg7dL

More pain from the Cash for Clunkers program
John Crudele
New York Post
Last Updated: 5:36 AM, December 15, 2009
Posted: 2:43 AM, December 15, 2009

Geithner Failing

Geithner Failing


Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is finding himself under increasing attack.

Here's the deal: Geithner is a disaster. He is terrible at explaining the Treasury's mission on the economy, and he's an apologist for a stimulus plan that isn't creating enough jobs.

Worst of all, he blames the prior administration of George W. Bush for the disaster (and in this he is correct), but never manages to mention that he held the critical position of president of the New York Federal Reserve while these mistakes were being made.

But we are stuck with Tim.

Dumping him would create more problems, especially in confidence around the world, than the guy could ever create by staying put.

Next time, however, let's do better in the job search.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/be_thrifty_not_grinchy_this_holiday_pcv43TANBmwQmP7oagiVPJ

Be thrifty, not grinchy, this holiday season
John Crudele
New York Post
Last Updated: 5:06 AM, November 27, 2009
Posted: 1:50 AM, November 27, 2009

Treasury Officials Made Millions from Banks


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f012c4b2-b8f6-11de-98ee-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

Geithner aides made millions on Wall Street
By Tom Braithwaite in Washington
Financial Times
October 14 2009 20:49
Last updated: October 14 2009 20:49

Why No Scrutiny of Federal Reserve?


http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/somebody_in_congress_needs_to_look_DEn4Hm2A7NGr0byANp7zRK

Somebody in Congress needs to look into this
John Crudele
New York Post
Last Updated: 1:50 AM, October 13, 2009
Posted: 1:50 AM, October 13, 2009

What Was Hank Paulson Doing?


"IT'S clear that former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson considered himself a vital intermediary between Wall Street and Washington -- a job description that not only doesn't exist but which is also fraught with potential conflicts."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/paulson_rate_cut_telethon_doesn_A8YuH3qzccMBydla6SNyFO

Paulson's rate-cut telethon doesn't ring true
John Crudele john.crudele (at) nypost.com
New York Post
Last Updated: 10:49 AM, September 24, 2009
Posted: 1:19 AM, September 24, 2009

Paulson, the former head of Goldman Sachs, who lobbied strongly for interest rate cuts as well as controversial bailouts of financial institutions, admitted that he saw himself as a conduit.

"I think it's my job to talk regularly to market participants, but also talk regularly to key regulators and make sure we are seeing the same issues, the same problems and working toward the same solutions," Paulson said during an Aug. 21, 2007 television interview.

In my last column I laid out what occurred on Aug. 16, 2007, the day Paulson lunched with

Ben Bernankeand likely tried to convince the nation's leading central banker that interest rates needed to come down. That was a week after the Fed had already decided that they didn't.

It was also the day when the Dow Jones industrial average did a sudden 328-point reversal, turning what was going to be a horrendous loss into one that was barely noticeable. Soon after the Bernanke/Paulson lunch a rumor started spreading on the Street that the Fed was going to act.

I also explained that after Bernanke and Paulson lunched, Paulson made a couple of ordinary phone calls, which took place 30 minutes before the actions that have been deleted from his official schedule.

Later that night Paulson called

Robert Rubin, another former Treasury Secretary, who was then leading Citigroup -- which owned a brokerage firm. The two men probably shouldn't have been talking, especially if Paulson had learned anything substantive about Bernanke's thinking at the lunch.

The next day -- Aug. 17 -- the Fed made Wall Street very happy with a surprise interest-rate cut that was an extremely unusual about-face on policy.

Today I'm going to look at who Paulson spoke with the day before his lunch with Bernanke -- Aug. 15, 2007 -- and also on Aug. 17, the day rates were cut. It's interesting to see the "market participants" and "regulators" that were using Paulson as a go-between.

Wednesday, Aug. 15: First thing in the morning -- at 7:05 a.m. -- Paulson called

Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the European Central Bank, and left a message. Then, at 7:15 a.m., he reached Bernanke by phone. After that he called

Tim Geithner, who was then head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and is now Paulson's successor as Treasury Secretary. Clearly, Paulson wanted to get the lowdown on what to expect when the already jittery financial markets opened.

Then, in rapid succession -- and remember, this is after speaking with Bernanke for five minutes and Geithner for 20 minutes and presumably getting important information -- Paulson placed calls to the heads of numerous Wall Street firms --

Jamie Dimonof JPMorgan,

Dick Fuldof Lehman Brothers,

Ken Lewisof Bank of America,

John Mackof Morgan Stanley, and

Stan O'Nealof Merrill Lynch.

Paulson called Mack again, who he hadn't reached the first time, and then phoned Lewis for a second time within an hour. After that he tried Trichet again, this time apparently successfully. That call lasted 10 minutes, according to Paulson's official schedule.

By 8:40 a.m. -- or 50 minutes before the stock market was to open in New York -- Paulson had reached the bulk of Wall Street's elite.

Wall Street's elite could have gleaned important information just by knowing that the head of the Treasury had spoken with Bernanke that morning and was subsequently making calls around Wall Street.

Lloyd Blankfein, who took over as head of Goldman when Paulson left, didn't get one of those earliest calls, at least not from Paulson's office phone. But Blankfein did get three calls from Paulson that day, starting with one that lasted 10 minutes between 9:40 a.m. and 9:50 a.m.

At that point, concerns about the credit market and the situation in housing had caused stock prices to decline 8 percent in a matter of weeks.

Some would call that a normal correction and nothing that should have caused Washington to panic.

According to his official phone log, Paulson is the one who initiated all these calls. So it seems reasonable to assume that he was just doing the job he had taken on -- coordinating what "regulators" like Bernanke and Trichet were thinking with the reaction he wanted by Wall Street.

When the Fed announced a "surprise" rate cut early on Friday, Aug. 17, Paulson again went into overdrive.

But this time he waited until the stock market was trading and prices were up. Just as soon as a conference call with Bernanke, Geithner and a couple of other Fed governors ended, Paulson called Dimon;

Charles Princeof Citigroup, where he left a message; Lewis; Blankfein,

Jimmy Cayne, head of Bear Stearns; Mack; O'Neal;

Ned Johnsonof Fidelity InVestments;

Larry Finkof BlackRock; Fuld; and

Bill Grossof Pimco, the influential bond-trading firm.

Paulson received a phone call at 3:40 p.m. from Bernanke that lasted 15 minutes. Within five minutes Paulson was fielding a call from Blankfein, the third time that day.

So, my questions are: Was Paulson really the Secretary of the (U)nited (S)tates Treasury or the (W)all (S)treet Treasury. Was he looking out for our inter ests or those of his friends? Was there such a grave threat to the US economy that all the normal boundaries between Washington and Wall St. ceased to exist?

On Tuesday I'll have more leads investigators should follow.

Dems Don't Pay Taxes, Punish Wilson for "You lie."


http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33573

Rangel: The Most Corrupt Dem?
by Ross Kaminsky
Human Events
September 17, 2009

Grassley Questions Firing of 3 Inspector Generals


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-tc-nw-inspectors-0617-0618jun18,0,5718990.story

or

http://tinyurl.com/m8byez

Senator questions firing of 3 inspectors general
Removal of 2 inspectors general prompts questions
By Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten
Chicago Tribune Newspapers
June 18, 2009

AIG Bonuses in Perspective; Obama's AIG Bonus; Geithner's Role Creating the Throwing Money Policy

This comment on the Heritage Foundation blog expresses my sentiments.

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/17/argh-the-aig-fiasco-gets-worse/

ARGH: The AIG Fiasco Gets Worse
James Gattuso
The Foundry
March 18, 2009

Jerome Zacny writes:
March 18, 2009
Mr. Geithner doesn’t know how the AIG bonus package got into the
bailout plan he crafted. Mr. Dodd doesn’t know how his amendment to
the bailout, restricting bonuses to executives, became “gutted” to
exempt bonus payments to AIG executives from those restrictions. Mr.
Obama doesn’t know how all of this happened and is now “outraged”. At
least that’s what his teleprompter said. These people are either the
biggest liars in government, or they are the most inept, lazy and
irresponsible people to ever work in Washington.

I tend to believe the latter. Trying to determine the biggest liar in
government is like trying to determine the largest grain of sand on
the beach. The safer bet is that no one actually read the compilation
of provisions that were crammed into the bailout legislation. Mr.
Obama turned the whole enterprise over to Mr. Geithner and the
Legislature. The Legislators put their ideas on paper and turned those
papers over to their staffers, who completed the bill and sent it to
the President. Mr. Obama promptly signed the bill into law. Now, those
who are responsible claim to have no idea how these bonus payments
ever found their way into the provisions of the bailout.

Nobody, not the President, not Ms. Pelosi, not Mr. Geithner, not Mr.
Dodd or his boss Harry Reid bothered to read the final version of the
bailout legislation before putting it into law. Everyone involved
trusted others to do their jobs for them. Now, when the fecal matter
hits the fan, they are all “outraged”.

This isn’t the only piece of important legislation that went unread
before being signed into law. The “stimulus” legislation was well over
a thousand pages long. It would be safe to say that no one read the
entire draft of this legislation, other than the typist who produced
it, before it was signed into law. There will be no shortage of
“outraged” legislators, no doubt including Mr. Obama himself, when we
all discover later exactly what was put into law. We may discover that
we have negated the Constitution, ceded the Southwest U.S. back to
Spain, the Southeast U.S. back to France, Alaska back to Russia and
the rest of the Country back to England. Who would know, no one read
those thousand pages before passing the legislation and signing it
into law. Perhaps that’s what Mr. Obama meant when he said the
legislation “wasn’t perfect”.

This kind of irresponsibility would not be tolerated in any other
environment. Can you imagine standing before a judge trying to explain
how you, an ostensibly rational adult, should not be held accountable
to the terms of an agreement or contract that you signed, based on the
argument that you didn’t read it?

This administration likes to talk a lot about accountability.
Teachers, doctors, bankers, stock brokers, insurance companies all
should be held accountable. But what about U.S. Representatives,
Senators, the President and their minions? Should they not be held
accountable? How can the American public have any confidence at all in
“representatives” who don’t read the legislation for which they vote?
Why should the American public have any confidence in a President that
signs into law legislation that he has not read?

* * *
“Treasury Secretary Geithner is disingenuous at best and untruthful at
worst when he says that he ‘inherited the worst fiscal situation in
American history.’
The truth is that Secretary Geithner didn't inherit the policy of
throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at failing companies - he helped
create it.

Even before he was Treasury Secretary - when he was still head of the
New York Federal Reserve - Geithner was so deeply involved in the
government's bail out of Bear Stearns, its take over of Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, and its bailout of AIG that this was the Washington
Post's headline from September 19, 2008:

"In the Crucible of Crisis, Paulson, Bernanke and Geithner Forge a
Committee of Three".

The first meeting of the first bailout - of Bear Stearns - was held in
Geithner's office. And the first meeting of what has become a $170
billion bailout of AIG was held - where else? In Geithner's New York
Fed office.

http://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&zx=j1s93pkjnt10&shva=1#inbox/120183535538f013

March 18, 2009 Vol. 4, No. 11
Bankruptcy, Not Bailout
Human Events
by Newt Gingrich

* * *

http://www.examiner.com/x-268-Right-Side-Politics-Examiner~y2009m3d17-Obama-Received-a-101332-Bonus-from-AIG

Obama Received a $101,332 Bonus from AIG
March 17, 3:01 PM · 582 comments
Dan Spencer
Examiner.com
Right Side Politics Examiner

Andrea Mitchell Agrees With Barney Frank that Tax Cheats are OK


http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/03/11/msnbcs-andrea-mitchell-pleads-guilty-barney-frank-media-scrutiny-obama-ap


MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Pleads 'Guilty' to Barney Frank for Media Scrutiny of Obama Appointees
By Jeff Poor (Bio | Archive)
Newesbusters.org
March 11, 2009 - 15:59 ET

Obama: If you pay taxes you can't work here!


http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/2009_03_04_People_who_pay_taxes_need_not_apply_to_Barack

So long White House gig! My taxes are in order
By Howie Carr
Boston Herald
Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Obama Appointees Don't Pay Taxes

Obama Appointees Don't Pay Taxes

Nancy Killifer withdrew her name from becoming the Chief Performance Officer for Obama. She is a graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management. She allegedly did not pay employment taxes for her household help.
Why does she show integrity but not Tim Geithner?

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/03/does-anyone-know-how-to-pay-taxes-in-the-obama-white-house/

Does anyone know how to pay taxes in the Obama White House?
By Michelle Malkin
February 3, 2009 10:50 AM