There were many indications of further growth in the federal government based on a question and answer session Treasury Secretary Geithner had with Newsweek editor Jon Meacham.
Geithner said that the entire financial regulatory system needs to be revamped.
Sounding a bit like a manipulator/propagandist planner, Geithner said the administration needs "to move while people have the memory of trauma." He said a new regulatory oversight framework will be proposed by the Obama administration within a matter of weeks.
"The markets can't solve all problems," he continued. He said it makes sense for the Administration to error on the side of over controlling risk, rather than not controlling risk enough.
Geithner also indicated the Administration's economic "stimulus" programs would continue for some time. "Mistakes governments make," he said, "are to step on the brakes too soon." The growing deficit problem, he indicated, would have to be dealt with down the road in 18 months to 5 years from now.
He dodged a question, when specifically asked, whether the federal government should help in the bailout of California or other state and local governments.
He also said that "public service is compelling, again."
The Q & A was hampered by the fact that the Pulitzer Prize winning Meacham appeared to have little in depth understanding of economics. The Treasury continues to carefully pick its spots to showcase Geithner.
There were no questions at all with regard to the recent breach of the rule of law and the sanctity of contract that the Administration caused by its treatment of "senior secured" Chrysler bond holders.
There were no questions at all about the enormous money printing that is now being conducted by the Federal Reserve and the serious price inflationary consequences of such money printing.
And zero follow up when Geithner stated that the Administration had to act when the nation "had the memory of trauma."
Meacham's leftist skirt was probably showing when the only questioned he seemingly wanted to return to was whether the salaries of corporate executives should be capped. Geithner didn't bite. He clearly stated he was against executive salary caps, but he did add that salaries should be adjusted to risk, which means Obama has some kind of scheme in the plotting stages to incentivize CEO's to push and fund projects that are favored by the Obama administration. I don't think Meacham understood that this was a positive for him and his leftist command and control freaks. He just asked again about controlling executive salaries.
Won't salary caps lead to even more bonus/"performance"-based pay and lead to even SHORTER time horizons amongst financial employees than already exists? In other words, isn't this a strategy to try to reinflate this bubble at all costs?
ReplyDeleteIf Treasury's OTS is any indication, it means a banner day for private equity underwriters (PEU's).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aWQza.6tawEY&refer=us
"Geithner also indicated the Administration's economic "stimulus" programs would continue for some time. "Mistakes governments make," he said, "are to step on the brakes too soon.""
ReplyDeleteI find this interesting. To date I thought monetary authorities in the UK and the US had insisted that once the demand for money started to fall they would be quick to put the breaks on all their past monetary easing and start to reign back in, thereby cleverly avoiding inflation. Yet this comment of Geithners suggests otherwise to me.
To say Govt's make the mistake of putting the breaks on too soon suggests they will be very slow to react in good times and will most likley let the inflation rip thru the economy.
(I know I am mixing up the UK and US economies here. Certainly the UK authorities have insisted they will be qwick to react when necessary. I thought they had said so in the States aswell .Apologies if I got this wrong).