Yesterday and again today in a Congressional hearing Tim Geithner's resignation was a topic of discussion. I will say I told you so long before now. On March 23, 2009 in Toxic Assets: Geithner just put only the rich in Titanic's lifeboats, I suggested that the focus was on the wrong segement of our society. That is the main criticism driving the debate about his job performance now.
Back on March 23rd, I said, " I have major concerns about those running the economy and the CEO's running their corporations. The potential solutions so far would seem to leave the people who crashed the boat running the rescue. This ( toxic assets plan ) is little more than a huge transfer of wealth again from the Middle Class to the wealthiest Americans."
Since that article on March 23, 2009 I have often repeated that refrain. No one seems to understand or at least verbalize that we have been remarkably unsuccessful in creating jobs and stimulating much more than Wall Street and the Stock Market. Any money you provide may not even create jobs in America but no one has questioned the premise driving our so far failed attempts at Middle Class recovery, which is one of the greatest failings of Geithner's stewardship of Treasury.
Sam Stein on Huffington Post on 11/18/09 reported that Oregon Democrat Peter De Fazio called for firing Geithner on the Ed Shultz show on MSNBC. De Fazio's reason was that Geithner had been pursuing a recovery plan too heavily skewed to benefit Wall Street.
De Fazio noted that there is a growing consensus among the Congressional Progressive Caucus that Geithner needs to be removed. Also Shahein Nasiripour reported that the ranking House Republican on the joint Economic Committee Kevin Brady ( R-Tx ) rattled off a litany of economic concerns and percieved economic failures.
The interesting thing about Brady's line of reasoning is the focus. The Democrats seem to be becoming the party of Wall Street while the Republicans are the ones with a Middle Class focus on jobs. This may be a reflection of the branch of the Tea Party Movement that is Middle Class and not afiliated with the Tea Party Express and Corporate America and their influence on Republicans.
Tony Romm from The Hill on 11/19/09 wrote about Geithner defending his job so far by blaming President Bush for causing the economic mess. Carolyn Maloney the committee Chairwoman sensing a major problem informed Brady his time was up. Geithner continued to attack the Bush Administration for, " Almost a decade of public neglect," and ," the harm that this brought to this nation."
Brady replied, " Tell all of that to the millions of Americans who nolonger have jobs because of your decisions."
Since that March 23, 2009 article I have written a number of times about the failings of Obama's whole economic recovery plan and the fact that I don't believe we will have recovery as long as we keep the present focus. On August 12, 2009 in Tim Geithner, Wall Street and the Peter Pan Theory of Capitalism, I noted that Obama and again by extension Geithner and Summers greatest failing was that they failed to understand that to get the change we needed we needed to begin by changing the whole way we viewed the world.
Banking didn't just fail because we failed to provide oversight or enforce laws still on the books. They failed because the whole theory of economics is flawed. This is why we can't revive the economy by reinflating the already failed banking and financial system. Wall Street and the whole financial industry weren't too big to fail, they were bloated and over inflated but have become largely irrelevant to the lives of most of us.
Because Geithner has failed to understand this we need someone new to help turn the economy around. The Middle Class not Wall Street is too big to fail. That might be his greatest lack of recognition and the most meaningful failure of all.
Comments