US president-elect Barack Obama has selected Tim Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as his Treasury secretary, opting for what the FT calls a figure who “plausibly represents change while also offering a high degree of continuity with both the Paulson Treasury and its Clinton administration predecessors”. Geithner, 47, a protégé of Clinton administration Treasury secretaries Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, has been deeply involved in US efforts to manage the credit crisis, working closely with Treasury secretary Hank Paulson and his current boss, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. As the Fed’s unofficial deal-broker, he helped arrange the government-backed rescue of Bear Stearns in March and tried – unsuccessfully – to secure a rescue deal for Lehman Brothers in September. Some joke that he is the most underpaid dealmaker in Manhattan. No one, says the FT’s Krishna Guha, “has a better grasp of the emergency Fed and Treasury initiatives to try to contain the credit crunch, ensuring he will be able to hit the ground running”. But he also remains politically vulnerable if emergency measures put in place under Paulson backfire or prove inadequate.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 4:53 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with Tim Geithner. Edit this entry.