After a string of personal and political bungles by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, critics of the country’s top money man are wondering what it takes to lose your job in Washington DC.
Geithner’s fielding a fresh round of criticism after e-mails surfaced last week that showed he forced insurance giant AIG to keep quiet about tens of billions of dollars in payments it made to several Wall Street banks — payment that represented full payouts funded by taxpayer cash that the banks otherwise wouldn’t have received.
The payouts were first revealed a year ago and were seen by many as a “back-door bailout” of Wall Street by Geithner. It was only learned last week that the Treasury chief moved to cover up the payouts.
READ THE CASE AGAINST THE SECRETARY (PDF)
“We’ve seen an ongoing effort by Tim Geithner at the Federal Reserve and Treasury to do the public’s work out of the public’s view in ways that benefit the banking interest ahead of the public’s,” said Joshua Rosner, a managing director at Graham Fisher & Co. “It was under Tim’s direction that we were given stress tests that were less than transparent and less than credible,” he added.
The latest Geithner flap comes after enduring withering criticism on everything from his handling of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to the stress test conducted on the major money center banks last year.
The damning string of mess ups stretch back 16 years and include:
* Geithner claiming he was unaware that millions in bonus payments were being made to some of the same AIG execs that presided over investing in risky derivative securities. Sen. Richard Shelby (R., Ala.) complained that Geithner was “out of the loop” on the bonus matter — a position he should not have found himself in as a high-ranking financial official.
* Overseeing a much-maligned stress test that many view as not being “stressful” enough.
* In May 2007, as NY Federal Reserve Bank President he worked to reduce the capital required to run a bank — helping to set the stage for the credit crisis in the first place.
* His proposal to expand a lending program that would spend as much as $1 trillion to cover the decline in the issuance of securities backed by consumer loans — so far the program has gone through numerous iterations but hasn’t actually been a blockbuster.
* The failure to pay $34,000 in federal taxes over several years early in the decade, and questions about the employment papers of a former household employee.
* A failed plan, pieced together with the New York Insurance Superintendent, to bolster bond insurer ratings. The plan never got off the ground and some insurance companies are still stuck with shoddy insurance contracts on their books.
* His first big flap, over the selling-out of taxpayers, came during the disastrous collapse of the Mexican peso in 1994-95, when the US and the International Money Fund provided a controver sial $50 billion bailout for the mess. Geithner at the time was a globe-trotting as sis tant deputy Treasury secre tary: He helped then-boss, Larry Summers, then the No. 2 Treasury official, engineer the US bailout.
Even back then a firestorm of protests arose from critics because the controversial bailout allowed banks and individuals to walk away with profits intact while dumping risks on taxpayers — a scenario that sounds awfully familiar.
With the latest mess-up, the 48-year-old Brooklyn na tive has been asked to testify in front of Congress to de fend himself against the AIG e- mails.
“I think it was a violation of the law,” said Chris Whalen, senior vice president, managing director, and co- founder of Institutional Risk Analytics. “[The NY Fed] can’t [impede] the disclosure of an SEC filer [such as AIG] and not violate the Securities Exchange Act of ’34. There is no exemption for well-meaning private officials of the Federal Reserve Bank. Remember, these officials can only get to hide behind the Department of Justice when they are acting as an agent in a bank supervisory capacity… I think [Geithner] has violated the law. I think he needs to be held to account.”
“Everybody on the [trading] floor thinks these revelations about the Fed and AIG are outrageous. [Geithner] should be held to account for what has come out,” said Barry T. Larkin, the head of sales and trading at Kabrik Trading.
At this point, some believe that Geithner, while he’s receiving the support of President Obama, likely will be forced to step down in the next six months.
To be sure, Geithner still has plenty of support on Capitol Hill and in the administration.Last week, Treasury and the White House denied Geithner had anything to do with the AIG e-mails.
But as taxpayer cash continues to be spent — unnecessarily critics believe — to bail out those on Wall Street, will they have the power to keep Geithner in his job?