Geithner Congressional Testimony: Financial Overhaul 'Essential' (VIDEO)

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday defended the US administration's vast regulatory overhaul plan as "essential" in averting or containing future financial crises.

Geithner appeared in Congress a day after President Barack Obama unveiled the wide-ranging program to reform financial market rules in the most sweeping overhaul since the 1930s.

The plan has already drawn fire for being too ambitious, but others have argued the plan does not go far enough in streamlining regulations and protecting against unsound financial practices.

But Geithner said the brutal financial meltdown should lead to action now to avoid the same type of crisis in the future.

"Every financial crisis of the last generation has sparked some effort at reform. But past efforts have begun too late, after the will to act has subsided," he told the Senate Banking Committee.

"We cannot let that happen this time. We may disagree about the details, and we will have to work through those issues. But ordinary Americans have suffered too much; trust in our financial system has been too shaken; our economy has been brought too close to the brink for us to let this moment pass."

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Comments

[Chace Haynes]

Obama is set to give the Fed (a private org.) which needs to be abolished, even more power. This guy works for the Elite. Not the American people.

[BurtonOerney]

Why is the fed bad? I mean besides the fact that democrats compromised with republicans in 1917 and didn't make it fully public?

[kevsters]

This stimulus package debate is useless when you have corporate shills blaming unions for everything.

Watch this clip of Jim Kramer saying that the reason why the stimulus package has not created many jobs is because the money was given to local unions. WHAT???

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=1840

[BurtonOerney]

This is not the stimulus package debate. We're talking about bailouts and financial regulation.

[2tango]

So now they are creating new rules...

If eventually another crises pops-up, no matter what, the cooporations still will have a Parachute, and the regular Joe, will get the shaft, Regardeless.

This Not for what I vote for.
I want Geithner/Summers out
And please...can somebody tell the Republicans NOT to be "Cozy" we still support our President.

[Redeemer777]

Giving the FED the power to catch future financial crisis so as to avoid the situation where the FED would be asked to lend trillions with INTEREST makes little sense to me.

I do hope i'm oversimplifying it.

[fcsakes]

Geithner, Bernanke, and the other wizard are not working for mainstream America and I would give anything (if I had anything) to know why Obama chose them and dismissed any idea of someone with more progressive views who didn't come from the very business they now claim to want to control. Why were lobbyists allowed into the meeting with Obama, why were the meeting members representatives of the mammoth banks that destroyed the system and took our money? Who were the representatives for the people? Where is the reinstatement of Glass Steagall? Where is control of the size banks are allowed to become? This "too big to fail" is garbage. We bail them out, they laugh in our faces, rake in the profits, present their upper echelon with obscene bonuses and give the consumer the finger. This is not a "financial overhaul."

Please do not patronize these banks. Patronize local community banks or credit unions. The only way to win against these "too big to fail" banks is to hit them in the offshore accounts.

[BurtonOerney]

Well, giving regulators expanded powers over activity other than banking takes care of the glass-steagal problem and the new capital requirements treasury will have in place by 12/31 will take care of the too big to fail thing. Did you read the regulations? A summary even?

[nomorefed]

Take back the trillions of $$$ given to the banks, who just sit on it and make it totally ineffective then start government incentive to create realistic industries that give employment and generate real productive income, some of which would hopefully be from exports.

Every other country, especially China and most of Europe have goverment incentives to protect it's industries. No matter what you call it it's a form of protectionism and its inevitable. We should stop being naive and take care of our own house. The only ones who win if we don't are the multinational corporations who don't care where they get their hand out.

recommended reading: http://www.bit.ly/12NCJR

Every other country, especially China and most of Europe have goverment incentives to protect it's industries. No matter what you call it it's a form of protectionism and its inevitable. We should stop being naive and take care of our own house. The only ones who win if we don't are the multinational corporations who don't care where they get their hand out.

[Rich Hosking]

Who is being naive??

Jobs were exported to increase short term profits fro corporations. These are the same organizations that employ congress to pass the laws that allow corporatiosn to do these things.

Nothing naive about it. The voters were sold out, and everyone but the voters knew it.

[Chace Haynes]

Exactly

[Realization]

Good point. It is the American pubic that has been and continues to be misinformed. While we have pursued "free trade" our successful trading partners have had industrial policies that targeted, subsidized, and protected their industries. People in the U.S. are told that industrial policy doesn't work. Not true. Take Japan's auto industry. Doing pretty well isn't it. Still gets a lot of government support. And hardly any foreign cars in Korea, including Japanese. It's not an open market but we import Korean cars and lose U.S. jobs. China is targeting aerospace and will use its domestic market to support growth.

If we don't learn to play the game, we will continue to lose. It's a zero sum game because that's the way the competition plays it. And U.S. policies have exacerbated the problem.

Have to decide to eliminate the trade deficit and do it asap. That's 30 or 40 years too late. And it won't happen without a government policy. The other guys have plans and play dirty. Gotta admire that. They aren't stupid.

No U.S. recovery without rejuvenating manufacturing. Simple as that.

[BurtonOerney]

Why are we doing better than any european country since the collapse? Shouldn't their strict regulation be making the euro shoot past the dollar as thier economies recover?

[Pquilson]

I believe, for what it is worth, that free trade has not worked. We need fair trade. By that, I mean that the US should impose the exact same policies our trading partners impose. For example, if country A imposes a waiting time and a tariff on goods it imports from us, then we should impose exactly the same policies. Perhaps then, after a while, other countries would be interested in reasonable policies. Of course, this all depends on the US manufacturing products to be exported. The same should apply to agricultural products.
There, that is my opinion, and I feel better now, Thank You!

[bayviking]

The tail continues to wag the dog. As long as FIRE (FInance, Insurance & Real Estate) drives US policy we are doomed. Producing things people need and full employment should be a matter of policy, not making fraudsters whole at taxpayer expense. Bernanke, Geithner and Summers should be fired immediately, for the sake of the country. These forked tonques have vaporized more money than any group in history, dwarfing even the outrageous Iraq War.Greenspan and Paulson should join them all in jail.

[Realization]

Right on. We are the only major country that hasn't gotten it. We need a strong Department of Industry and Trade. The scariest thing about the GM bailout is that it is being run by financial types not people who understand the manufacturing industry. Treasury has been a big part of the problem with trade negotiations. They contend markets work even though it has always been clear our competition rigs the markets. he finance guys can make money either way. American workers can't.

[GrainOSand]

Hey you, yes you consumer. You want reform -- stop spending! If we had a sustained period where every American did not spend the expected, the anticipated, the lusted after dime, you would see the corporate world sit up and take notice, you would witness the often lauded self-healing properties of the market. The corporate entities have America by the mind via Madison Avenue, by the arm via Washington, and by the balsa wood via massive debt. Washington cannot take back American life from the corporate masters (witness watered down legislation), that which is the biggest percentage of GDP can -- the consumer. The movement must be massive sustained and angry, only then will mountains of corruption arrogance and greed be moved.

Organize in your communities. Buy the necessary. Protest unfairness in business practice wherever you find it. Point out the hypocrisy. Share the horror stories. Be active for change in your own life. There is power in numbers and the corporations like the government love to create disunity (haves and have-nots). Transformation has begun, it is to be a grueling journey. The people can win if they stick together and correctly identify the enemy. I have seen the enemy and he is me. The hole in the American foot is self-inflicted. The president talked about change. Change you.

[GrainOSand]

Oh, and by all means use cash or debit cards for all purchases where possible. Leave the credit cards on the shelf. Start to think communally and cooperatively. No, this is not your father’s socialism either. This is common sense. The family, the individual, the community do not live in Washington. The individual, the family, the community therefore must be self-sustaining, able to survive no matter the dysfunction in Washington. Who cares about your being, your family, your community more than you, your family, and your community respectively? The government is often guilty of looking out for their own interests (will I be elected again as opposed to -- people need help). Let the communities of people be guilty of an ever-widening circle of the same idea -- self-interested living -- with a heavy moral component. Before you know it, the community becomes the entire nation. Empathy, hope, and love rules and prosperity flourishes, because from the bottom up America is strong and vibrant.. It starts at home. Allocate at least a hundred years for fruition. The longest journey starts with a single step. The election of President Obama was a giant step. Now let us step up individually to meet the challenges of the fierce urgency of now. Government cannot, and we know...will not do everything. Each of us can do something to push progress forward. Each of us have gifts to bear and skills to bring to the issues of our times.

[BurtonOerney]

Every government lending report since November says that consumers are doing exactly what you think they're not doing.

[KQuark]

Like usual the Republicans during the election that accused Dems of blocking regulations were just li ars. Now they are blocking regulations like they always do in the end.

[GrainOSand]

I think the jury that rendered the verdict on Republican hypocrisy is at home sleeping by now.

[Bernique]

Mr. Geithner -- what did the Fed do with the 9 trillion dollars they printed up these last few months? Who got all that money?

[KQuark]

That's a complete lie.

[Chace Haynes]

The total # spent, lent, borrowed and printed is almost 15trillion from March 2008 to March 2009. Source-Bailout nation

[studlyguy]

Doesn't matter what he Gubber say's, anybody with a brain know's it's all bulls**t,blowing hot air up the senate banking committee pants is all he's doing,telling them what he thinks they want to hear,but in reality their all LIES..

[enoughalready13]

What good do these hearings do, really? I mean come on. What a joke. Geithner looks bored and pissed, as if we are taking him away from more buddy-buddy hobnobbing with the Wall Street criminals.

[TJ]

Substance aside, it is remarkable how poorly Mr. Geithner performs as a communicator of ideas. Like many, he seems to believe that speaking at a fast clip instills confidence and understanding in the listener. Many of Obama's people seem to have skipped the public speaking classes and seminars; they need to get back to that and they might be a little more effective.