Rumble At Treasury: Geithner Seeks To Push FDIC Chair Out After Clashes

Bloomberg News:

Timothy Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for U.S. Treasury Secretary, is seeking to push Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair out of office.

Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has argued Bair isn't a team player and is too focused on protecting her agency rather than the financial system as a whole, according to two congressional officials and a person familiar with his thinking. Bair has battled with Geithner and fellow regulators over aid to Citigroup Inc. and other emergency actions, making her enemies in the Bush administration.

Read the whole story: Bloomberg News

Comments

[heal57]

This woman wants Sheila Bair in the mix. We have enough men in the money sector, and we know what always happens with that scenario. Leave Sheila Bair there to help the Obama team. She's been FOR the borrowers way before anyone else was. Keep her!!!!!!!!!!!!

[heal57]

I like Bair.. Come on, we need her. Homeowners need her; enough good ole boys already.

[PhilipTaylor]

Is Geithner a "new" version of Paulson?
If so he must go!

We do not need team players!
We need SOLID THINKERS with willingness to go against Paulson and FED!

Homeowners are at the center of this crisis taken in by the TRICK Loans from the Bankers!
Bair is the only one who wants to help the Homeowners and Geithner had better get on that WAGON!

[theone718]

I like Bair after reading this. She is fighting very hard for homeowners. Let her stay!

[TAIsabel]

I have to admit that I did not know much about her but, what I just read makes me think that she is quite sensible and on the right track. We will see how it turns out. President Obama needs to keep Wall Street on a VERY short leash. I hope Geithner is not there to lengthen it.

[truthseeker7]

The mere fact the Geithner works for the Fed means that he is looking out for the international banking community and not the american citizen. Anything he does to "help" us will strictly be to fatten us up for future slaughter.

[boatswain]

Bad move, Tim.

[suzonne]

Bair has earned my respect and support....Geitner has yet to do this.

Larry Summers was a much better choice for me.

[funkalicious]

if Larry Summers or any of Clintons Treasury Secretaries were so good why didn't they lay a solid foundation under the economy that would have been the engine of American growth for over a generation.
They sold out American labor and sold our manufacturing base to low wage countries, that exploit labor. That is the very reason we have a collapse today. A job that pays well not three jobs that barely pay the rent.

Summers, Rubin et al... left us on such poor footing that the idiot we call president and his minions were able to lose control in just a few short years. If we still had a broad manufacturing base, not just autos and military/aviation, Shrub would have hurt us not sunk the battle ship.

[heal57]

I think Rubin may have been up to his ears in the messes of the last year or so; Summers, I don't think so.

[VivaZapata]

and all the king's horses
and all the king's men
couldn't put humpty dumpty
together again

[DeSwiss]

This has all the markings of a Brooksley Born operation.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/economy/09greenspan.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

[elizaconnors]

Back off Mr. Geithner. She knows more than you do about this mortgage mess and, frankly, we need someone who will be outspoken at the FDIC.

[schatsie]

this is the same kind of puerile behaviour that excluded Berkley Born (i know i misspelled this name) and the whistleblowers at ENRON... We need Bair more than we need Geithner, who stood by and fiddled while the economy was tanking....

[Egalitare]

Memo to Geithner: if you arguments can stand up to her push back, perhaps your'e not up to this job.

[DeSwiss]

It would appear that Ms. Bair is shaking up the old boys club and they don't like her for it one bit. From what I've read about her over the past year or so, her focus has been upon how the banking crisis has impacted families and has taken steps toward protecting their homes and mortgages. But these numbskulls can't see the forest for the trees.

Rather than fuming over her great ideas, Geithner, et.al., need to get with the program. Its about US, not just about those jerks on Wall Street who caused this mess to begin with. Ms. Bair appears to be fighting not for the FDIC's security, but for the people whose money and life-savings are in the banks she regulates.

[Mildmannered]

Let's get onboard Sheila. There is only one train and it is a fast one