Obama's Treasury Secretary A Cursing, Skateboarding "Hipster-Wonk"

The Economist profiles Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary pick, who they approvingly describe as a "seasoned crisis manager":

Mr Geithner looks a lot younger than his 47 years (though not as young as he did before the crisis began). He skateboards and snowboards and exudes a sort of hipster-wonkiness, using "way" as a synonym for "very" as in "way consequential" and occasionally underlining his point with the word "fuck". In temperament he seems similar to Mr Obama: he is suspicious of ideology, questions received wisdom, likes a competition of ideas and is keenly aware of how uncertain the world is.

...

He is a quick learner: within a year of joining the New York Fed he could debate the intricacies of monetary policy with academic experts. But he will join an Administration rapidly filling up with heavyweights on economic policy, not least of them Mr Summers. Indeed, one of the big questions of the new team that Mr Obama is expected to unveil on Monday is just how Mr Summers, a brilliant but intimidating and sometimes abrasive figure, will fit in.

Read the whole thing.

Comments

[Tamoomoo]

Awesome. I like this guy even more. Hopefully he'll make some skating analogies while on the job: describing the troublesome economy as "gnarly"; describing cautious nerve-racking actions like a "50-50 grind down a 15-step handrail"; maybe a "tweaked out" plan for interest rates.

Yes, indeed.. the era of 60s-era hippie Democrats is over!

[canucklivinginUSA]

Thank god. That culture war BS was getting old

[NMO14]

More frightening than having to watch some bad reality show on MTV...

[exit116]

Sounds like a cool dude, fits Obama well. If he helps pull us out of this mess then he'd be very popular, the press is going love this guy.

[Bitsko]

When does the video game come out?

[AnneElk]

"Street Skate 2009 -The NYSE Edition" LOL

[Nikola Tesla]

DOH!

[appleknocker]

The general tenor of comments on Huffpost lately seems to be that we shouldn't question Obama's appointments because they're better than the buffoons and scoundrels presently in office. Is that really our new standard?

[gbrooks]

It's certainly not my standard, but I've seen it a lot around here.

[Hawka]

The current standard I see amongst the critics is not questioning but whining for the most part. When someone comes up with a question in a reasonable manner it'll be good to see.

[Bitsko]

It seems more like half and half to me. And most of the choices so far are definitely better than what we have now.

[PatsyT]

What is wrong with intelligence and creativity?
We have been without for so long it seems to surprise some.

[JBS]

It is A standard.

OTOH, the real life, honest to god BOZO THE CLOWN would be "better than the buffoons and scoundrels presently in office", so it's not a very rigorous one.

[Loki11467]

My friends brother works for the NY Fed and had nothing but praise for the guy. Plus better to have a public servant than a banking servant like paulson is.

[amluvinit2]

Oh, I agree. Paulson is a mess. We are definitely in an economic crisis. We need somebody in there to straighten out this big mess. I bet the money does't come up missing like it seems to have disappeared throughout the Bushie days, over and over again.

[NMO14]

I have nothing but worry about any of these Wall Street clowns...I want to see him get off his stupid skateboard and get to work...I don't care what generational attitude he has, doesn't matter, means nothing...­GET TO WORK, and then we can say he is what was needed...t­il then, mere speculative bull.

[bikerdude]

He seems like a great fit with the O man and his cabinet.

[brokenarrow]

His bio on Wikipedia shows that you can't get anymore worldy than this cat. He is as "international" as one can get.

Check it out, very interesting background. Definitely not some TX. dolt that would propose to change French Fries to Freedom Fries of something as insane as that.

My God, it feels good to know we're going to have people that actually KNOW what they're doing.

[coolkraft]

agree...re­freshing changes from the inept present administration and congressional leaders

[jdmba]

An international man of mystery who skates and speaks several languages. I'm into it.

[NMO14]

Austin Powers would be better suited to this job then.

[canucklivinginUSA]

Why is he married? He is charming, worldly and skates. Life is so unfair

[NMO14]

Seems the guy suffers from Peter Pan syndrome..­.a 47 year old man skateboarding has some serious issues to work through...­like maybe growing up?

[lenzorizzo]

Sure, make a Fed member sound like a regular guy, so we won't notice we're getting screwed by the same old crowd.

[Hawka]

I think you're being bogged down by too much ideology and generalization. Good thing I voted for Obama then, I wanted somebody who could actually think and act on the job.

[NMO14]

Obama has yet to act on the job...we'r­e waiting...­we'll give him some time, but then it's going to the end of the honeymoon.­..no time for excuses, coddling, aiding and abetting, or covering his a--.

[Bitsko]

How have we gotten scroowed by them if they haven't gotten in yet?

[lenzorizzo]

We've been getting screwed by the Fed since 1913.

[Excitedforfuture]

Did I miss the part where they said he worked for J.P Morgan?

[PDXTransplant]

As long as he is capable of doing the job then he can swear and talk wonky all he phucking wants. :o)

[kmich718]

Amen!

[NMO14]

Get the job done, then he can behave like a child...

[RUAZ]

Here's info re Mr. Geithner I included in suggested questions for the HFSC around the time BSC (er JPM) was bailed out. Note the "special unit" he headed. The first question concerns the "collateral" (Bear Stearns assets) transferred to Maiden Lane, the LLC partnership to allegedly protect taxpayers. There was no transparency even after Rep. of the HFSC posed the question in writing. They just stonewall everything and you taxpayers put up with it. Expect more of the same from Mr. Geithner unless you insist that congress finally gets a backbone.
Ironically, Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Geithner, who know what the collateral is (it is hoped) reached polar opposite conclusions about the quality of that collateral. Mr. Bernanke testified several times during the hearing that it was investment grade or a "good bit" highly rated as confirmed by the advisor. On the other hand Mr. Geithner said JPMorgan chose not to acquire this collateral as it would be more risk than they wanted to assume at the time. When asked whether the Fed would have made a similar loan to BSC in exchange for the same collateral, Mr. Geithner said no. During the hearing the Fed was congratulated repeatedly for "doing the right thing given the speed at which BSC unraveled and the duress". However, Mr. Geithner testified later the Fed would have done everything exactly the same given more time, i. e. they did the right thing. Part II to follow.

[Bitsko]

Next time, please try to write more clearly and use paragraph spacing. Thanks.

[DeeDelacroix]

Geithner was competent enough to push for de-regulation in the 1990s which is one of the reasons we're in the current mess. According to the Economist article, he's also working "hand in glove" with Paulson -- the architect of the current bailout fiasco which is, once again, demonstrating the incompetence of the Bush administration. Sheila Bair would be a better choice and this is one Democrat (who worked on the Obama campaign) who is telling the President-Elect that he's making a mistake by naming Geithner to head Treasury.

[NMO14]

Deregulation is a nightmare from which we are suffering through now...if this guy was part and parcel of that debacle, he is out of hand wrong for the job...sick of those types...Ob­ama really needs NEW blood, not some warmedover Wall Street hack.

[devadasi]

I'm not surprised.­..he's got a smart and hip vibe about him. Good choice.

[faretheewell]

How horrible, wonkish pragmatists in an administration. I have gotten so used to the anti-intel­lectualism of this administration. Imagine how comfortable we could have been with a VP that we want to drink beer with who believes that dinosaur and man were contemporaries.

I guess we will just have to settle for competence. That is too scary.

[fireW]

So what? With Chimpenfuhrer we got the cursing without a intellect. At least this guy has a brain.

[truthyguy]

"But he will join an Administration rapidly filling up with heavyweigh­ts..."
I hope the biggest problem the administration has is too many competent people. We have had enough of the opposite.

[NMO14]

Competence? Let's wait and see...many of you putting the apple before the cart...wha­t any of these people did before was part of another time, another place...th­ey need to bring it for the current dilemma we are in: financially and in terms of America's ruined standing in the world...it­'s a tall order to fill...I wish Obama Godspeed in handling the disaster he inherited, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and anticipate anything until these so called "competent people" are in place and getting to work...thi­s has been a problem among Obama supporters fromt the get-go...t­hey make assumptions based on insufficient evidence..­.

[truthyguy]

"let's not get ahead of ourselves"

You mean like we did in assuming Bush was a Uniter, Not a Divider and actually had coherent thoughts?