Althouse: Why Geithner's bailout rollout sucked so bad.

February 17, 2009

Why Geithner's bailout rollout sucked so bad.

He realized that the plan he had worked on for weeks was a disaster, so an alternative plan had to be slapped together at the last minute.

35 comments:

vet66 said...: Brilliant. So he substitutes a catastrophe for a disaster. No wonder he has troubles with his taxes.

He does sound tall on the phone though!; 2/17/09, 8:31 AM
George M. Spencer said...: I have yet to see him on that thing called TV, which I used to watch.

I've read, though, that he has a squeaky voice like the 1930s Mickey Mouse and shifty eyes like Flattop or B.B. Eyes.

Should get Michael Douglas for the job.; 2/17/09, 8:44 AM
AllenS said...: I'd say that Geithner does his taxes on April 15th.; 2/17/09, 8:45 AM
rhhardin said...: I was inclined to cut him slack, from the reports.

I used to do the same thing with huge programs not working by this or that deadline; it takes longer, is all. Suck it up.; 2/17/09, 8:48 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/17/09, 8:56 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: If today's market action is any indication, he may want to consider plan C.; 2/17/09, 8:57 AM
Icepick said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/17/09, 9:09 AM
Icepick said...: Just days before Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner was scheduled to lay out his much-anticipated plan to deal with the toxic assets imperiling the financial system, he and his team made a sudden about-face.

According to several sources involved in the deliberations, Geithner had come to the conclusion that the strategies he and his team had spent weeks working on were too expensive, too complex and too risky for taxpayers.

...

The Obama administration, they said, failed to rein in the grand expectations built for the plan on Wall Street and in Washington, concluding that they would rather disappoint the markets with vagueness than lay out a lot of details they might have to change later -- a failing they saw in the Bush administration's handling of the crisis. [emphasis added]

Ah, now it's clear why Geithner was the indispensable tax cheat. His experience as a key player during the creation of TARP I demonstrated to him one of the ways in which the Bush team fucked things up. Namely, they came out with a plan too heavy on details which inevitably had to be changed later. When that went over like a lead balloon, they changed direction completely, which created uncertainty that did harm to the markets.

So Geithner put together a very detailed plan for public consumption. How is this different than what Paulson did? Or is it that they expect Congress to roll over and die for Obama in a way that they wouldn't for Bush?

Anyway, the heavily detailed plan was great, until Geithner realized that plan couldn't work. So then he put out a plan that was sketchy on details, which then did harm to the markets.

The difference in the two courses of action is clear. Under the Paulson regime, they publicly presented a detailed plan to begin with. Under the Geitthner regime, they created a detailed plan in private that had no chance in hell of working. But at least they didn't present it in public! Instead they came out with "The dog ate my financial sector recovery plan" defense, so beloved by school teachers everywhere.

Clearly Obama was right: Geithner is the ONLY man who could possibly do the job!

(One wonders if there wasn't at least one woman who could have done the job. Or perhaps a potted plant.); 2/17/09, 9:11 AM
rhhardin said...: Ohio farmers are out spreading manure this morning too, unfortunately just upwind.

Audio available in a minute...real audio, You Are There, 10am EST.; 2/17/09, 9:13 AM
Anonymous said...: Enjoying your Depression?; 2/17/09, 9:19 AM
Curtiss said...: Lucky for us he came up with a plan that isn't "too expensive, too complex and too risky".

We've dodged another bullet!

(ignore that approaching light); 2/17/09, 9:21 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Geithner has been thinking about the problem for 19 months, devised a plan to fix it, then realized at the last moment that his plan would not work?

This is supposed to inspire confidence?

I recommend you batten down your hatches if you haven't already!; 2/17/09, 9:21 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Yea.. The realization was.. you know.. we are starting to get some flack for the porkulous givaway add to that the money we wasted on the first TARP (we overpayed)

And now we are going to hit'm up for more.. way, way more?; 2/17/09, 9:23 AM
Anonymous said...: America is still a bigoted anti-gay country.

So I agree with Rush Limbaugh.

I want America to FAIL!!!; 2/17/09, 9:29 AM
Moose said...: Slapped together?!

In the Obama administration?!

Perish the thought! Though when Obama speaks about it it'll sound *fabulous*...; 2/17/09, 9:38 AM
Anonymous said...: Did he use Turbotax to develop the bank rescue package? That software is behind a lot of Geithner's problems.; 2/17/09, 9:43 AM
Clyde said...: Didn't Geithner used to be one of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players on Saturday Night Live? Oh, crap, he still IS!

Not-Ready-For-Prime-Tim!; 2/17/09, 9:43 AM
John said...: Remember we were all told that Gethner was uniquely qualified for this position. To object to him on the grounds that he is a thief and a tax cheat was to not be a serious person.; 2/17/09, 9:47 AM
Anonymous said...: DTL -
Most of us have known all along that you don't have any interest in the well being of the U.S. or its people. And you don't care about the future beyond your own flimsy wants. That's why nobody takes what you say seriously.

I now feel free to ignore you completely from now on.; 2/17/09, 9:49 AM
rhhardin said...: Geithner doesn't sound like a Democrat, if he's worrying about a plan not working.

Evidently intentions don't weigh heavily in his thinking.

I'm surprised the Democrats don't throw him out.; 2/17/09, 9:55 AM
William said...: Consider the paradox of the trans continental railroad: In order to build a first rate railroad it was necessary to have a railroad in place. The first transcontinental railroad was shabby and unsafe but you needed its facilitites in order to build a proper railway...Perhaps if there was, like, a plan then that plan could be improved upon....Here is my fear: Some of the economists on Obama's team think that Keynesian economics didn't lift us out of the Depression because we did not spend enough money. If we had spent as much money on the WPA as we did on WWII, the Depression would have soon been over. Or maybe not.....Just as sure as pregnant women get hemorrhoids, a succession a swollen budgets will at some point entail inflation. Just what we need: a bout of Weimar inflation to go with our Great Depression. Under Obama every man will be a millionaire which will be almost enough to buy a Happy Meal.; 2/17/09, 10:12 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: ...Geithner had come to the conclusion that the strategies he and his team had spent weeks working on were too expensive, too complex and too risky...

So Geithner doesn't know what he's doing, but don't worry, because...

...ambiguity, the officials concluded, would make the plan an easier sell on Capitol Hill, as congressional leaders could be brought into the discussions of details...

Those economic geniuses in Congress will help him figure it out!; 2/17/09, 10:15 AM
MayBee said...: The Obama administration, they said, failed to rein in the grand expectations built for the plan on Wall Street and in Washington,

I love the euphemism "Obama administration" when it was President Obama himself publicly building expectations for the plan.

The Obama administration seems to have a recurring theme of not wanting to do things because the Bush admin did them. They don't want to sound positive because Bush sometimes sounded too positive. They don't want to give details because sometimes Bush had to change details.
Move away from the knee-jerk reactions to Bush, Mr. Obama. He wasn't always wrong!; 2/17/09, 10:21 AM
TituswasintheBerkshiresspaaing said...: Just got back from the Berkshires with the Rare Clumbers where I was spaaing at the Canyon Ranch. Fabulous, wish you were all there with us. It was divine. I was detoxed, waxed, folliated, wrapped, stoned, massaged and fumugated. I ready for a fab week. How are you?

Who cares about what Geitner says. Did you all read the story? Women secretly want to do him, as do gays. So he can say anything. He is hot. Love the hair. I want to fuck him. I want to kiss him. I want to eat his ass.; 2/17/09, 10:48 AM
TituswasintheBerkshiresspaaing said...: Each rare clumber had a special day of beauty as well. They used special fabulous products on their immaculate coats and they look delish now.

Their teeth were brushed with organic dog toothpaste. How fabulous is that?

All of us are total replenished and ready to take on the world.

Be careful with the mud baths though darling. The mud tends to get in your cracks and you don't know if it is a klinker or dingle berry or just mud. A little smell of the finger should be able to clarify this unfortunate result of the mud bath. I didn't have a klinker or dingle berry. Just a little mud caked on to my ass hairs.

thank you.

Namaste.; 2/17/09, 10:53 AM
TituswasintheBerkshiresspaaing said...: I would like to suck Geithner so bad.; 2/17/09, 11:11 AM
Icepick said...: One wonders what "too expensive" could have possibly meant given events from the last year. What was he going to spend? $5 trillion? $10 trillion? How much is "too expensive" now?; 2/17/09, 11:11 AM
Icepick said...: I would like to suck Geithner so bad.

Titus, you should have Geithner suck you instead. From all indications he sucks hard.; 2/17/09, 11:13 AM
TituswasintheBerkshiresspaaing said...: You know he has a nice stimulus package.

It hangs low, it looks long and juicy because his is thin, bet he clips the bush and shave his balls. Ass is tight with just a little hair in the crack. He has a light love trail of hair from his belly button to his nice clipped bush. Head is cut and well formed. Nice color to the hog too. He may even have some ink. God I am getting horny. He is so fucking hot.

Oh and pecs are well defined. We need a shirtless photo of him somewhere, that would be hot. Good jerk off material.

I am usually not a bottom but for some hotties I will switch hit and for him I would definitely blow him. Maybe even let him fuck me. I bet he is a bitch when he fucks. Real bratty and yelling stuff like he is the king of the world. That would get be hot. I wouldn't mind if he slapped me up a bit when he fucked me too. Or at least pulled on my hair real hard and said you are my little bitch aren't you?; 2/17/09, 11:25 AM
TituswasintheBerkshiresspaaing said...: Oh and you know his stomach is delectable. I would like to splew on that thing and see it drip inside his well defined, cut abs. Totally hot.

I bet he sweats when doing it too. Sweat on the forehead. His pits may smell a little from the pounding. I want to lick his pits. Wow, he is one hot mofo.; 2/17/09, 11:28 AM
jeff said...: "America is still a bigoted anti-gay country.
So I agree with Rush Limbaugh.
I want America to FAIL!!!"

Was wondering what any of this had to do with the bailout and then Titus showed up. So never mind. I won't even ask where you made up the limbaugh thing.

Never mind.; 2/17/09, 2:31 PM
John Stodder said...: Lucky for us he came up with a plan that isn't "too expensive, too complex and too risky".

What's the old adage? Too expensive, too complex and too risky: Pick any two.

It sounds like Obama, having outsourced the stimulus package to Congress, is preparing the way to do the same with the bank bailout.; 2/17/09, 4:19 PM
The Drill SGT said...: rhhardin said...
I was inclined to cut him slack, from the reports.

I used to do the same thing with huge programs not working by this or that deadline; it takes longer, is all. Suck it up.

In the PM world, the classic is the "3 Envelopes Joke"

old PM welcomes his replacement and says:

"if you ever face an insurmountable problem, open the first envelope"

sure enough 2 months later, the Program has quality issues and behind schedule. He remembers the envelopes and opens the first one:

"Blame it on me!!, if you have a second problem use envelope 2
- Old PM"

It works. but 5 months later, the program has quality and schedule problems. He opens the second enevlope.

"REBASELINE the Program (e.g. redefine success), if you have a second problem use envelope 3
- Old PM"

It works. but 6 months later, the program has cost problems. He opens the third envelope.

"Make three envelopes - Old PM"

Geithner has just opened his second envelope; 2/17/09, 4:36 PM
Simon said...: William said...
"Consider the paradox of the trans continental railroad: In order to build a first rate railroad it was necessary to have a railroad in place. The first transcontinental railroad was shabby and unsafe but you needed its facilitites in order to build a proper railway"

Good analogy. One could apply the same thing to space exploration - in a way, one needs to go to mars in order to build the facilities required for a mars expedition.

"Here is my fear: Some of the economists on Obama's team think that Keynesian economics didn't lift us out of the Depression because we did not spend enough money. If we had spent as much money on the WPA as we did on WWII, the Depression would have soon been over."

Which is bizarre theory because World War II did not simply involve spending a great deal of money. It had to do with government control of the economy, which was peculiary justified - to the extent it can ever be said to be - insofar as we were, as a nation, united behind a single, specific goal. An assumption that society is a unified entity pursuing a collective goal in peacetime was, arguably, one of the flaws of the Legal Process theory (Patrick Baude has suggested so, for example). Such unity doesn't outlast a war (indeed, it does not always hold in a time of war, as we have seen recently).; 2/17/09, 9:24 PM
Balfegor said...: Well. That's disappointing, and not terribly surprising given the trajectory of Obama's administration. At least they caught the problem before it went out, though -- it's too late on the stimulus bill.

Here is my fear: Some of the economists on Obama's team think that Keynesian economics didn't lift us out of the Depression because we did not spend enough money. If we had spent as much money on the WPA as we did on WWII, the Depression would have soon been over.

More to the point, Obama seems to labour under the belief that if Japan had just spent more during their endless rounds of "stimulus" spending, they would have got over their hump and resumed growing at a healthy clip. The problem, I suppose, is that Japan's "stimulus" seems to have been considerably larger, as a proportion of their economy, than Congress's stimulus appears to be -- most of the spending doesn't even hit until next year, and the time horizon for the total package is a decade. In the course of a decade, didn't Japan blow like 4 trillion dollars in extra spending? On an economy less than half our size? Obama's own mental model seems to suggest this stimulus is doomed to fail.; 2/18/09, 10:06 AM