Business

Oh Jack, you’re in our debt

As in the nursery rhyme, Treasury Secretary nominee Jack Lew — whose first day on the job will be tomorrow — will have to be both nimble and quick, and he will have to find a way to jump over a flaming $17 trillion candlestick.

Lew, who is expected to breeze through the Senate confirmation hearings, faces a tall order in turning around the country’s mounting budget and debt issues. But first things first.

Lew has some important things that he needs to learn before assuming the role of keeper of the United States’ out-of-balance balance sheet and its currency.

The first order of business for the Queens native is figuring out how to work the phones. The phone system on a Treasury secretary’s desk must be daunting.

Which is the direct phone to Fed chief Ben Bernanke? Is it the red phone — or is that to the president? Which speed dial is John Boehner’s office and which is Harry Reid’s? And which ones are for the European Central Bank, and which for the stock exchanges? Lots to learn.

Which primary Treasury bond dealers can he rely on for discreet and confidential advice? And which should he not? What are the special security protocols? No more quiet nights reading in the library alone — he’ll now need a security team: He’s the keeper of the currency and the printing press.

He’ll also need to know how to say, ad nauseam, “The United States has a strong-dollar policy.” And how to keep a straight face as he says it.

All of these things will be new for Lew, but none will require his quickness or nimbleness more than negotiating in good faith with a Republican-led House, which has passed several comprehensive budgets, and a Democrat-led Senate, which has refused to pass a budget since before we had iPads.

So in his soon-to-be new role at Treasury, Lew (once he masters the speed dials and the Bloomberg logins) will have to turn to both the left and the right if he wants to get a budget and debt-reduction solution out of Treasury.

He will have to do his best to “Jack be nimble,” rather than become another Jack — the one facing a giant beanstalk of debt.

Because as Jack sleeps, the beanstalk grows and grows.