Since Secretary of Treasury Geithner did his undergraduate work at Peking University in 1981 and at Beijing Normal University in 1982, no wonder he is setting the dollar up to drop and have his buds off shore manufacturing jobs. Of course, they won't pay taxes like he doesn't, unlike us poor slobs.
Now, if we could figure out a way to make the Feds to bail-out the middle class, we might have an economy again.

Elections matter. 1/3 of the Government is embodied in a single man. The Treasury Secretary need only please a single person to hold their place at least for a term. I can call on The Queen of England to ABDICATE her throne but it means about as much as this Republican grandstanding-NOTHING.

Carpenter

I agree and I'll give you one more, I think most of the jobs saved were in the public sector for policeman, teachers, and fireman but as the state budgets become more dire, cuts will have to be made in education and sevices or the states will have to raise property taxes… I like to look at trends, so as you say, the drop from 700,000 to 500,000 is just temporary due to injection of capital… How long can we extend unemployment benefits?… The stimulus package has a two-year window but it is quite evident that jobs should have been the priority…. Vice President Joe Biden went on Meet the Press and said that the administration misread the numbers because the economy much was much worse than they were led to believe… He was vilified for that statement, so candor is not the answer; it's all about the results…I still believe the stimulus should have been much larger but the one they passed barley had the votes….I forget what the exact numbers are but between the Fed, F.D.I.C, and the federal government about $23 trillion was injected into our economy (Wall Street & big banks) and less than $1 trillion of that was for Main Street.

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Thomas Jefferson

Mike, good article. On the jobs though, don't you think that the drop from 700,000 to 500,000 on jobs losses was mostly in part to the influx of our (taxpayer) money given to bussiness to stimulate them. So this number might in fact not remain stable and could grow again?

as far as china keeping is money low compared to the dollar its in their best interest to do that if they let there money get to strong against the dollar they would lose billions in conversion on the money we owe them. thats partly why T.G. was flip floping on his position there he knew we were going to need to borrow vast sums of money from them and did not want to press this issue with them.

Mike seems to me that politics caused most of the problems. regardless of which party was in power, they both had lame idea's, either free housing money from barney frank or bush's give it all to the rich and hope some of it gets down to the rest of the country (trickle down). Blaming one party for this mess is like the two kids who get in trouble and one saying "he made me do it" They both are in up to their elbows in this. with that said would'nt it be nice if they could sit down at the table and put politics a side and truely solve the problem. Thats what the people really want not this constant finger pointing and name calling thats pervades washington today. Remember your party controls the whole ball game now. If they run all their hopes and dreams through with out any help they will have nobody to blame thats why they want at least 1 republican to vote with them so they can preach bipartisianship.

According to the responses, the blog was taken out of context and I wanted to set the record straight before I leave for the weekend.

1. I was not blaming President Barack Obama for his initial choice but I will and more importantly the American people will, if the Treasury Secretary does not make jobs a priority or resigns.
2. Timothy Geithner has an impressive resume so I was not making him out to be klutz.
3. Under the previous Treasury Secretary, we lost 20% of our wealth in just 18 months, so even though I still think Mr. Geithner should resign, he is a lot better than what we had but that is not good enough.

Have a good weekend everyone

Lol… Robert Rubin and Larry Summers were knee-deep in allowing the Wall Street players in keeping their derivatives... Volcker is still on the financial team but probably was too old and he no longer to wanted to take a position on a full-time basis…. Wall Street and the banks were fixing to fall, creating a domino effect, it was critical to get someone that had full knowledge of what was happening at the time; Timothy Geithner did… Then again hindsight is always 20/20.

I know all about the pie-in- the sky versions of how positions should be filled but this was an extraordinary transition that took place prior to President Obama taking his oath of office.

Secretary of State Robert Gates remained because he had the same vision that President Obama had; they were compatible.

There is not a true certain economic strategy…. That's what presidential campaigns, debates, and elections are all about… The candidates make their case, then the people decide at the ballot box, the winners pick their cabinet and implement the ideas that they think will best suit this nation… It's only natural that the losers think everything they do is wrong...It's called "sour grapes."

there have been several instances of a president reaching across party lines to fill positions or keep people in positions like sec gates. Yes it is about politics but once in place they should be doing whats best not what politically correct. both volker and rubin IMO would have been better choices they both had much more experience than T.G. and a better grasp on the whole picture not just wall street. Czars? should be like children seen not heard they are there to advise not make speeches.

Czars are not unique to this administration; they've been around forever.

Timothy Geithner certainly had the qualifications to stabilize the banks but that was only one part of a three part dilemma. Banks/Wall Street,housing, and jobs..... One out of three is not acceptable.

I really don't know Tim Geithner's politics, I think he is an independent because Wall Street types aren't usually committed to a single party affiliation...It's all about the money for them.

T.G was a mistake but that is what this president surrounds himself around. Look at the policy and belief of his czars.

There certainly were not enough available candidates to field the job because we were in a deep recession, so to my knowledge the only available candidates were the outgoing Hank Paulson, Larry Summers, Paul Volcker, and Robert Rubin… The economy was heading south fast and we did not have time for on-the-job training. Despite his unemployment tax issue Timothy Geithner certainly had the credentials (he was chairman of the NY Fed and sat in on the bailout meetings), but he has this Wall Street mentality since he worked for Goldman Sachs. I believe, he can be given credit for stabilizing the banks but we have a jobless situation right now; so we need a new person in that position, or he needs an overnight makeover. He is what he is.

The job is political by nature because the Treasury Secretary serves at the pleasure of the president and his policies. That's why we have elections, the party that wins gets to govern. You get the whole package. President Bush fired his Treasury Secretary because they were not on the same page.

You're welcome Suzy…. I think that we both agreed that this is a bottom-up economy… No jobs; no consuming.

The naysayers have a short memory because we were losing more than 700,000 jobs a month before the election, it is down to about 500,000 but I realize, that is still unacceptable…

We cannot continue to use the old formulas because the manufacturing jobs have gone overseas so some companies will go from part-time to full-time employment before they start hiring and others will be even slower to hire because they don't manufacture anything...IMO

sec of treasury not fed my typo

T.G. was a mistake from the beginning he should never been named to the fed to begin with. There were plenty of better qualified people to get the job. This is one job where politics should never be part of. This position should be filled with the best person for the job regardless of what party they belong too. The person excepting the job should also be polically neutral in the way policies are formed and inplemented. The monetary system is no place for politics.

Mike, after stepping down, a special prosecutor should be appointed to prosecute Geithner for income tax evasion.

I agree. Thanks Mike, I didn't know until you wrote this what all the fuss was about.