Monday, April 27, 2009
Thick as thieves
Is an old expression for a like minded group of people who stay close and work together for their own interests. That might have also been a good headline for the New York Times' look at Tiny Tim Geithner and his close relationship to the Wall St bankers he is now charged with rescuing.
Even as banks complain that the government has attached too many intrusive strings to its financial assistance, a range of critics — lawmakers, economists and even former Federal Reserve colleagues — say that the bailout Mr. Geithner has played such a central role in fashioning is overly generous to the financial industry at taxpayer expense.It's hard to maintain an arms length relationship when you are slapping backs.
An examination of Mr. Geithner’s five years as president of the New York Fed, an era of unbridled and ultimately disastrous risk-taking by the financial industry, shows that he forged unusually close relationships with executives of Wall Street’s giant financial institutions.
His actions, as a regulator and later a bailout king, often aligned with the industry’s interests and desires, according to interviews with financiers, regulators and analysts and a review of Federal Reserve records.
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