RSS feedTim Geithner
’Who does the ECB call when it wants to speak to Europe?
Answer: the United States.
The Washington Post on Wednesday has a sympathetic piece highlighting US officials’ behind-the-scenes roles in the eurozone crisis.
Most of which shouldn’t be surprising considering Tim Geithner’s background and the Stackelbergian morass in Europe, but there were a couple of interesting nuggets:
Tim Geithner and stuffed elephants at the Harvard Club
The Harvard Club of New York hasn’t survived for 124 years without a haughtily dismissive attitude to irony. Stuffed elephant heads are nailed to nearly every wall, making it an appropriate venue for Tuesday evening’s ”Conversation with Tim Geithner”.
Diplomacy by US Treasuries
Here’s a year-old quote from the Inner Workings blog of the Asia Times:
Dollar-denominated risk assets, including asset-backed securities and corporates, are no longer wanted at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE),
The earnest importance of being systemic
It’s the question that’s seemingly stumped Tim Geithner: how to identify a priori systemically important non-bank financial institutions.
The Federal Reserve on Tuesday suggested further rules regarding who might be considered for attention by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) as per section 113 of Dodd-Frank.
Too big to fail, fail?
Those worried that Dodd-Frank was overly-cautious in tackling ‘Too Big To Fail’ issues are unlikely to be comforted by the concentration limits study released on Tuesday by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC).
Global imbalances? Blame the west
Independent Strategy have never been ones to mince words.
On Friday they’ve tackled the thorny issue of currency wars and global imbalances. It’s a topical debate given that US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner suggested earlier this week that G20 members (ahem,
Performing PPIFs
The Public-Private Investment Program, or PPIP — do you remember it?
Appropriately, given its somewhat Dickensian name, it was like the orphaned child of banking stabilisation measures. Associated with a difficult early period of the Tim Geithner reign,
The derivatives ding-dong waiting in the Dodd bill
Looks like the flagship of US financial reform won’t have plain sailing after all.
Tuesday brought an odd bit of shadow-boxing over where to park derivatives trading in the post-Lehman age. Something to watch,
Pic du jour, China/US balance of power
Vice-premier Wang Qishan and that flunky Geithner. H/T John Kemp
How thick is Tim Geithner’s skin?
The AIG CDS story has been smoldering for so long now that most ordinary mortals are left either confused or bemused, or both.
What is it that Janet Tavaoli keeps rabbiting on about? Are those Bloomberg guys obsessed,
Geithner moots Tarp exemptions
Tim Geithner on Thursday argued that small businesses should be exempt from restrictions attached to the bank bail-out programme that large banks such as Citi and Goldman Sachs have been anxious to escape.
In praise of big banks
Here’s a rarity – someone arguing that the whole “too big to fail, too big to exist” idea in financial market reform is just plain silly.
The structured finance lawyer who blogs as Economics of Contempt has stuck his head above the parapet to explain why banks actually need large balance sheets – to act as market makers,
Geithner lauds Apec’s stance
Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, welcomed a commitment by Asia-Pacific ministers to flexible exchange rates even as his Chinese counterpart praised the renminbi’s peg for helping the global recovery.
PPIP(ed)
Congratulations to Western Asset Management.
The US fixed income specialist has just raised enough money to participate in the US government’s Public-Private Investment Program, the PPIP.
From the Associated Press:
Geithner aides paid ‘millions’
Obama administration officials now working on fixing and regulating the financial system were beneficiaries of several million dollars in pay from Wall Street banks and buy-out firms, it has been revealed.
Geithner rejects implicit subsidies
Large financial institutions will be prevented from receiving an implicit government subsidy, Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, and Barney Frank, chairman of the House financial services committee, insisted on Wednesday.
Geithner: Too early for ‘exit’ strategies
US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner on Wednesday cautioned that it is too early to remove policies aimed at boosting growth, reports Bloomberg. Geithner, who spoke as he prepared to leave for a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers on Friday in London,
Geithner loses cool with regulators
US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner blasted top US regulators in an expletive-laden tirade amid frustration over President Barack Obama’s faltering plan to overhaul financial regulation, reports the WSJ.
Senate attacks Geithner reforms
US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner met immediate resistance in Congress to his regulatory reform package on Thursday as senators from both parties questioned the Obama administration’s plan to grant new systemic risk powers to the Federal Reserve.
US financial reform plans outlined
The Obama administration will target critical weaknesses in the US financial system, such as thin bank capital cushions and lax lending standards, in a proposed overhaul of financial regulation this week,
Geithner sees ‘global storm’ abating
Tim Geithner on Tuesday identified “encouraging signs” in the US economy and a better outlook internationally, adding there would be a reduced role for the Public-Private Investment Partnership, a key US programme to stimulate the market for toxic assets and loans.
Yuan-ted: US renminbi bonds
Well, US Treasury sec Tim Geithner’s bond-selling trip to China certainly paid off…
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A top Chinese banker on Sunday called on the U.S. government and the World Bank to sell yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong and Shanghai to encourage the development of debt markets in those centers and to promote the yuan as a major international currency.
Quote du jour, Chinese snickers
They hate the US, and now they laugh at them too. From The Telegraph:
In his first official visit to China since becoming Treasury Secretary, Mr Geithner told politicians and academics in Beijing that he still supports a strong US dollar,
US and China eye economic co-ordination
Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, begins two days of top-level economic talks in Beijing on Monday amid a tightening focus on the need for the US and China to co-ordinate their exit strategies from the financial crisis.
US Treasury proposes new regulatory framework for derivatives
The US Treasury on Wednesday proposed a sweeping new framework within which to regulate over-the-counter derivatives, including those notorious credit default swaps.
Reuters reports (emphasis FT Alphaville’s):
US stress test results
Yes, the results of the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP) are finally out and you can find them here.
In the meantime here’s a quick summary:
10 of the 19 firms tested need to add $185bn to their capital buffers.