Geithner: Force of Global Storm Receding

Treasury Secretary Geithner held a pen and pad briefing for reporters previewing his trip to the G-8 Meeting of Finance Ministers in Lecce, Italy. He leaves for Italy Thursday. I participated in the briefing via conference call.

Geithner seemed to me the most optimistic he has ever been since moving to the Treasury. He said the "force of the global storm is receding." He also said the deflation risk was receding.

He continued to emphasise the role of the IMF and the Financial Stability Forum. These appear to be the two organizations that are being set up to usher in some type of global domination/regulation by insiders. He also mentioned for the first time during these type of discussions the World Bank.

WSJ this morning reported that:

The Obama administration is backing away from seeking a major reduction in the number of agencies overseeing financial markets, people familiar with the matter say, suggesting that the current alphabet-soup of regulators will remain mostly intact.

Don't get the impression that this means the Administration is rolling back on major changes in regulations. During the briefing, Geithner mentioned a number of times that major changes in financial regulation will be announced soon. He did nothing to down play the size of the changes coming.

I think the changes will be game changing, with the continued trend toward more government involvement and special rules for politically connected insiders.