The Con-Artist Wing of the Democratic Party
Ultimately, Geithner was a hit man for American democracy—and the middle class that sustained it. Geithner has acknowledged substantial fraud in the crisis, but he won’t even deign to answer why the administration did nothing about the individuals who perpetrated it. He doesn’t discuss distributional questions from the bailout. He sneers at the notion of justice. He argues for “anti-democratic” measures in a financial crisis, including emergency powers for the president similar to those the president has for national security. He won’t really explain why he refused to fight for writing down mortgage debt, or even what his role was in doing so. Geithner even takes time to knock Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s handling of the Great Depression. In other words, Geithner never grapples with any of the political or moral consequences of what he did. It’s just TARP-made money, baby! Or, as I’ve laid out, buckets of lies, misstatements, and omissions.
Geithner is at heart a grifter, a petty con artist with the right manners and breeding to lie at the top echelons of American finance at a moment when the government and financial services industry needed someone to be the face of their multi-trillion dollar three card monte. He’s going to make his money, now that he’s done living his life of fantastic power after his upbringing of remarkable mysterious privilege. After reading this book and documenting lie after lie after lie, I’m convinced that there’s more here than just a self-serving corrupt official. There’s an entire culture, of figures at Treasury, the Federal Reserve, in the entire Democratic Party elite structure, and in the world of journalism, a culture in which Geithner is seen as some sort of role model.
Americans may not get the reckoning, investigations, and jail time for wrongdoers, including Geithner himself, which they want, at least not now. But they don’t have to buy Geithner’s version of events. Far less important than what kind of regulation is in place is the ethical and cultural question of whether people like Tim Geithner can continue to lie, cheat, and steal at the highest reaches of government. Hopefully, Americans have learned enough from the financial crisis so that the answer will be no.
Be sure to read the full article by Matt Stoller here…
From 2009 to 2010, Matt Stoller worked on the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act as a congressional staffer.
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We all know that OBAMA does not give a shit about us families that illegally lost our homes!
Me Geithner worked on both TARPS, under both Bush and Obama Administrations. From the TV interviews, his book seems to boil down to what Margaret Thatcher called the sad political TINA excuse, “There Is No Alternative.” In his case, no alternative to the TARPS.
Very interesting and enlightening article along with all of the comments. Since I can’t post a comment on that particular site I will just state it here. Matt Stoller should have revealed that he worked on the formation of the Dodd-Frank Act, which those of us in the industry know full well that is actually a means by which the banking cartel can capture more of the market by ‘weeding’ out the competition and take control. It is not meant to help the general public or to protect the ‘consumers’ as it is portrayed. How would you like it if the gov’t told you that you can’t make any more income than you are right now? How would you feel if you were a plumber, electrician,taxi driver or any other blue collar position worker or even a self-employed person and the gov’t tells you how much you can charge for your services or earnings? That’s exactly what the Dodd-Frank Act did. Essentially it is targeted to destroy ‘free enterprise’ and why? Because those in power are leading us all to slaughter to a system very very similar to Hitler. I am sure that Matt Stoller knows this better than anybody since he worked on this ridiculous Dodd-Frank Act that has conflicts within itself and purposely drafted to evade the truth to the American public.
Geithner was a ‘mole’ for the financial industry. As Obama always said, “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer” Geitner was the ‘inside’ man. The only consolation in this observation is that had the Republicans been in charge it would not only have not been better, it would have been devastatingly worse. But cheer up! Just look at all the agencies that are now reaping the benefits from the blatant fraud of the public, as now evident in massive “payola” settlements by B of A and others who are settling pennies on the dollar for having had the privilege of raping the public. The playeers laughed all the way to the ‘bank’ while creating the downfall of the middle class in income gap.
Oh yes, we will ‘do it’ again! There is a sucker born every minute!
Usta be, when we enforced laws, that it was against the law for criminals to write a book that enabled them to profit on their crime(s.)