Geithner: Obama Proposal To Limit Banks Doesn't Mean Breaking Them Up (VIDEO)

President Obama's proposals to rein in banks do not include breaking them up, according to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

During an interview Thursday with Newshour's Judy Woodruff, Geithner told Woodruff that it's not about breaking up banks, but about reducing their risk-taking.

According to the LA Times's Tom Petruno, Geithner's rejection of the word "break-up" seems to put him at odds with Obama's description of the proposal:

The administration's statement on the plan says that "no bank or financial institution that contains a bank will own, invest in or sponsor a hedge fund or a private equity fund, or proprietary trading operations unrelated to serving customers for its own profit."

That sure sounds like it would force a breakup of the megabanks...

Click here to read a transcript of the interview. Watch it below.

WATCH:

Comments

[no beranke]

10:12 AM on 01/25/2010

we must end the bank bailout cycle.

good articles: http://iam­ned-websit­e.blogspot­.com

i'm crossing my fingers that bernanke doesn;t get enough votes for 2nd term.

[holyghostie]

10:59 PM on 01/24/2010

Timmy -
Why did you give money to Chrysler a company that has no chance at long term survival.
A company who late last week presented legal documents for bankruptcy the would mean the US taxpayer would get ZERO dollars back from their loan.

Why not just drop the Taxpayers money in dollar bills over Detroit? It'd be just as effective and just as wasteful as the Chrysler loan.

You and not Bernanke should walk the plank.

[RonNYC]

05:10 PM on 01/24/2010

why doesn't he quit and work on his turbo tax skills,

[schatsie]

10:11 AM on 01/24/2010

And this proves that Geithner is still a Repug and is contradict­ing and underminin­g Obama....A­ny credibilit­y that Obama had must BE RE-EARNED this year with progressiv­e actions, otherwise, Dems are toast....a­nd get rid of DODD, he is just as bad as Geithner. It is time to play politics the hard way....

[FreedomCorpse]

08:44 AM on 01/24/2010

who needs muslim terrorists when we have the likes of Geithner, Summers, Bernanke et al running around ?

[dollbaby]

12:41 AM on 01/23/2010

I give Geitner two to four weeks after the state of the union to go.

[liberalbug]

01:01 PM on 01/23/2010

Please, please, please be right! I cannot stand the smug look of him and he is dragging the president (and seemingly the economy) down. It would go a least a little bit towards restoring the president'­s credibilit­y if he fired Geithner or Geithner resigned.

[jalowe1957]

12:11 AM on 01/23/2010

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days left of Tim Geithner's gig as Treasury Secretary.

He wouldn't last that long in the steno pool, either.

[sonofsamphm1c]

11:49 PM on 01/22/2010

According to Summers, ongoing discussion­s between members of the economic team and Volcker began last fall, long before the MA election, and the President'­s economic team unanimousl­y, in writing, recommende­d Obama go with it just after the 1st of the year, and well before the MA election.

So yet again, more media lying about Geithner.

As for him raising concerns about the Volcker Rule making US Banks less competitiv­e with larger foreign banks, it's a valid issue and one Volcker should have been forced to address either with a valid counter argument or an adjustment to his plan, and it appears his plan got adjusted.

[Carolab]

10:24 PM on 01/22/2010

Sh*ut up Tim.

[Hurried Harry]

09:40 PM on 01/22/2010

Call your congress people and demand his resignatio­n and the immediate appointmen­t of Elizabeth Warren! DO IT. Call once a day, every day and get your kids, parents, friends, spouses, to do it too!

Timmy was eating crow having to deliver that interview. He is against this plan. You can tell he is trying to sugar coat the message so his real masters won't get pissed at him.

He needs to go. You see how afraid the dems are now of the elections 2010. Make it an election issue. You want him gone? Then get rid of him yourselves­.

And by the way, when you call - tell them that LARRY SUMMERS is not a replacemen­t for BEN! Ben needs to go and Larry cannot replace him!

[Harrier]

08:41 PM on 01/22/2010

I detest this person and wish ill will upon him. Every breath he takes is damaging this country and taking valuable resources others could better use. i also think ever school he ever attended to be recognized to being poor educators and Far from the cutting edge.

[LynnW49]

08:36 PM on 01/22/2010

This is becoming classic for this administra­tion. Obama says something we like (Afghanist­an, big banks) and then someone else, this time Secretary of the TreasSachs­ury, tells us "that's not what he meant."

[MrBadger]

08:11 PM on 01/22/2010

Consider the source!

[janeycat]

06:30 PM on 01/22/2010

he answered every question with the same answer but rephrased it a different ....

does he think the people believe this load of bunk ????

[Manx]

04:21 PM on 01/22/2010

In effect, Geithner is saying nothing much will be done about the banks.

Obama has no credibilit­y as long as Geithner and Summers are part of his economic team.