DEVELOPING… Timothy Geithner is set to exit as Treasury Secretary after the debt debate wraps up…
From Bloomberg:
Geithner, 49, has told associates that he needs a break from government service after dealing with the turmoil that followed the collapse of Wall Street firms including Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., first as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then as Obama’s treasury secretary.
Family considerations also are playing a role in Geithner’s deliberations, according to the people. His son has decided to finish his final year of high school in New York.
If Geithner does leave the administration, Obama would be losing a member of his economic team who understands Washington institutions and the New York banking world as well as the intricacies of the Chinese economy. Geithner has pressed the Chinese to let their currency appreciate faster to reduce the global imbalances that both he and Obama have blamed for financial uncertainty.
Well, it’s good news that this Keynesian is leaving, but he will almost certainly be replaced with a like-minded individual, which is no cause for celebration.
He didn’t understand much about the economy, and most of his predictions on the direction of the economy have not come true.
Farewell, Timmy–the end of the debt debate can’t come soon enough!