Speculation Lew May Become Treasury Secretary

There are quite a few names being tossed around as successors to Tim Geithner at Treasury. He is expected to leave after the election.


If Obama is re-elected, on the Democratic side, possibilities include Laurence D. Fink of BlackRock, the asset manager; Erskine Bowles, who served on President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform; Daniel K. Tarullo, a member of the Federal Reserve Board; and Roger C. Altman, the investment banker.

For the Republicans, the front-runners include Robert B. Zoellick, the head of the World Bank; John B. Taylor, the Stanford economist; Glenn Hubbard, the head of Columbia Business School and a Mitt Romney adviser; and Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board.

NYT is adding one more name, Lew:

From the Democratic list, though, one prominent name seems missing: Jacob J. Lew, the White House chief of staff. For one, the White House has tended to promote from within, and Mr. Lew is a trusted aide to Mr. Obama. 

On top of that, the main challenge facing the next Treasury secretary, among many challenges, of course, will be fiscal – negotiating reforms of the country’s tax code and designing the best way to reduce deficits. As the former director of the White House budget office, Mr. Lew seems like a likely candidate.

Note: Zoellick is a complete insider, even with a stint at Goldman Sachs, but in the short conversations I have had with him, I suspect he is a secret gold bug.