Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Geithner: No Second Wave Of Financial Crisis

Republicans like to talk a lot about a "double dip" recession, a second financial catastrophe. If you looked behind their backs you'd probably see their fingers crossed. But Timothy Geithner, everyone's favorite scapegoat, says a second wave will be prevented:
"We're not going to have a second wave of financial crisis," Geithner said. "We'll do what is necessary to prevent that. We cannot afford to let the country live again with a risk that we're going to have another series of events like we had last year. That's not something that's acceptable." Read or listen at NPR
Geithner also explains his "closeness" to the banking world, which he gets a lot of criticism for:
Regarding his regular communications with executives of some of the largest banking institutions, Geithner said there's "a misperception" about this.

"Again, I'm the secretary of the Treasury," he said. "I have to spend time figuring out what it's going to take to fix the things that are broken in the financial system — that requires spending time with the leaders of the nation's major institutions. There's no way anybody could do this job without doing that."