'Deeply Offended' Geithner Tells Charlie Rose: "Urban Myth Is Out There That I Spent My Life At Goldman Sachs"

Turbo is getting upset becaue Neil Barofsky is spreading the bailout truth all over the news...

How many people would drop some benjamins to watch a 90-minute pay per view battle between Geithner and Barofsky moderated by, oh I don't know, Dylan Ratigan?

The focus of this clip is Neil Barofsky, and his attacks on Geithner, both in his new book Bailout - #9 on the NYT Bestseller list, as well as all over the media.  The interview was conducted and aired Monday July 23, which is important because the very next morning Barofsky responded by annihilating Geithner on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

There's a lot in here to discuss:

1. Timmy's whine about being 'personally offended' is hilarious.  FDL has more on why it's so funny.
2. The Goldman Sachs Urban Myth - After making this comment, Geithner will leave Treasury in 3 months (already announced) and go to work for Goldman Sachs.
3. Public Servant my ass...
4. The New York Fed as the fire-station of the financial system - How about the NY Fed as a failed regulator who had absolutely no idea of the derivatives dance going on between AIG, Goldman, and most of the European banks, and didn't know that Lehman, BofA and others had made Repo 105 transactions their staple end-of-quarter breakfast of champions for fraud.  That's just for starters.
5. 'A lot of people thought the NY Fed was a private bank' - This one is too easy.

Partial Transcript

ROSE: He [Barofsky] raises this question: was Tim Geithner too friendly to the banks?  Because he knew them from his years at the New York Fed.

GEITHNER: As you know, I'm deeply offended by that.  I find that deeply offensive.  You know, it's the result of an urban myth -- significantly.  A lot of people thought and wrote in publications of record that I spent my life at Goldman Sachs, rather than as a public servant, which is what I've done with my life.  A lot of people thought the Federal Reserve bank in New York was a bank - a private bank - rather than the fire station of the financial system.  And people were deeply misled about the basic choices we faced and the alternatives we confront in that context.  A lot of people, including many of my critics, said we went out and gave -- and lost trillions of dollars of the American taxpayers' money at that time - deeply misleading; terribly damaging to confidence.  And the cost of that has been very damaging to the President, and, I think damaging to the integrity of the basic effort.

***

The above clip cuts out the first 90 seconds of the discussion about Barofsky, which you can watch below.  Start watching exactly at the 3:20 mark for the beginning of the Barofsky discussion:

Full interview at PBS

More on this story:

• Barofsky: 'Geithner Admitted To Us Privately That Obama's Housing Policy Was DESIGNED To Sacrifice Homeowners In Order To "FOAM THE RUNWAY" For The Banks'

• BOOK EXCERPT - Geithner's Temper And Transparency Exposed: "No One Has Ever Made The Banks Disclose The Type Of Shit That I Made Them Disclose..."

Comments

[SKINFLINT]

Ya know, this is the big lie. I listen to the candidates in the debate and if they even sniff a retort that the fed is a federal branch of the gubment, I just dismiss them entirely. I try to expain this to folks around here and they just look at me not knowing what to think. Just an uphill battle.

[DailyBail]

Yes, it's a battle. Probably about 10% of the population has a correct understanding of the Fed, and maybe 2-3% know the issues well enough to be pissed off.

Just a guess.

[DailyBail]

BUSTED: Bank Of America Admits To SEC That It Repeatedly Lied About Debt And Leverage Levels

http://dailybail.com/home/busted-bank-of-america-admits-to-sec-that-it-repeatedly-lied.html

[DailyBail]

Lehman Auditors Charged With Fraud

http://dailybail.com/home/lehman-auditors-charged-with-fraud.html

[DailyBail]

LEHMAN ACCOUNTING FRAUD: Attention Prosecutors: Watch This Video About Lehman, Geithner, Fuld & The New York Federal Reserve

http://dailybail.com/home/lehman-accounting-fraud-attention-prosecutors-watch-this-vid.html

[DailyBail]

REPO 105 - Earnings Fraud Was Rampant At Citigroup And Bank Of America

http://dailybail.com/home/fraud-documents-show-bank-of-america-citigroup-utilized-lehm.html

[DailyBail]

Lehman's False Accounting Was Known By SEC And NY Fed Regulators -- Yet They Did Nothing

http://dailybail.com/home/lehmans-false-accounting-was-known-by-sec-and-ny-fed-regulat.html

[DailyBail]

http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/hardcover-nonfiction/list.html

Link to buy Barofsky's book.

[MontgomeryScott]

I linked to the 'full interview' on PBS, and that commysimp Rose's show, to get the full context.

The most pertinent question asked is THIS, by Charlie Rose:
Rose:
That brings us to the United States and, and, the question of CONFIDENCE, ‘in the economy’.
Do you think the CONFIDENCE today in the U.S. economy is MORE influenced by ‘expectations’ of what happens in Europe and THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, or EXPECTATIONS OF the, what COULD GO WRONG in dealing with the FISCAL CLIFF?

READ THIS AGAIN.
" or EXPECTATIONS OF the, what COULD GO WRONG "
Or, expectations of THE...
The WHAT?
"the, what COULD GO WRONG,"
He is the Treasury Secretary of the 'richest nation in the world', riding in the MOST POWERFUL, MOST ADVANCED MILITARY VEHICLE OF MASS DESTRUCTION (the FED). WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

Has anyone watched 'Hot Shots' lately?

Did anyone ELSE spot this classic Freudian slip?

TurboTax -Timmy Geithner's response to this question reminds me of what it sounds like when 'financial wizard' becomes Porky Pig'. MEL BLANC would have gotten VOICE LESSONS!

He doesn't know if the patient will live. He's NOT a very good doctor!

Ross Perot was INCORRECT about that 'GIANT SUCKING SOUND's root cause.
It is the FED, sucking the LIFEBLOOD out of the economies of the entire WORLD!

I am SORRY if the former head of the New York FED, and the WORLD BANK (where he forgot to pay his INCOME TAXES)
, got his experience teething at Goldman-Sachs.

He looks like a RAT BASTARD to me.

[Sagebrush]

Montgomery I think your right, he does! And if a sleazy parasite looks like a RAT BASTARD, it usually turns out to be a RAT BASTARD. Good call!

[SKINFLINT]

Just was wondering if anyone else here knows that Mr. Geithner and POTUS have known one another since childhood? Frank Geithner was boss to Barry's mom while both worked for the Ford foundation. Interesting stuff.

[Cheyenne]

What's so funny about Geithner's response is that it echos the responses of Ttreasury officials, most often from Herb Allison, to Barofsky's allegations about structural deficiencies in TARP, mostly that it greases the skids for fraud. Barofsky's "Bailout" repeatedly depicts Treasury's algorithmic response mechanism: Rather than take on the merits of Barofsky's points, Allison and others would instead react by saying, "I am personally offended by that." It's one of the many cassette tapes, provided by Wall Street lawyers, that Treasury officials would jam into their heads and repeat like parrots.

Geithner wallked right into this one, which means either that (1) neither he nor his staff even read the book, or (2) having read it, Geithner is so unimaginative that he can't snap out of his own robotic behavior long enough to get through an interview.

[DailyBail]

Just was wondering if anyone else here knows that Mr. Geithner and POTUS have known one another since childhood? Frank Geithner was boss to Barry's mom while both worked for the Ford foundation. Interesting stuff.

---

Yes, we are well aware. Another interesting link between the 2, to say the least.

[DailyBail]

Geithner wallked right into this one, which means either that (1) neither he nor his staff even read the book, or (2) having read it, Geithner is so unimaginative that he can't snap out of his own robotic behavior long enough to get through an interview.

---

My guess is #1. But if it's #2 then Geithner is a bigger dolt than even we had presumed. Thanks for the book detail, Cheyenne.

[Cheyenne]

Barofsky is on Lauren Lyster's Capital Account in about an hour on RT--1:30 p.m. EST.

Lyster is an excellent examiner who's willing to venture down some rabbit holes that scare the shit out of MSM. Thus far, from what I've seen of Barofsky's interviews on MSM, he's pulled his punches compared to the jarring revelations set out in "Bailout."

If Lyster follows her ususal M.O., this interview could get very interesting.

[Pitchfork]

Lauren Lyster looks like model and talks like a Daily Bailer. I'm pretty psyched about the Barofsky appearance, too.

[Cheyenne]

DAMNIT!!!! Capital Account's 1:30 p.m. version is YESTERDAY's show (which has Denninger calling out Paul Ryan's b.s.). Damn Russian TV, half way around the world...

Tune in again at 4:30...

[Pitchfork]

Cheyenne, they're in Washington, DC, but I feel your pain.

[Cheyenne]

Pitch--

That much I've gathered. It's RT's programming schedule that trips me up every time since the 24-hour cycle begins at midnight in Moscow, which translates to 4:00 p.m. E.S.T. here in the U.S.:

http://rt.com/usa/schedule/

So Lyster's 1:30 p.m. and Keiser's 3:30 p.m. shows are literally yesterday's news over here.

[Pitchfork]

Sorry about that Cheyenne. BTW, do you watch RT on the boob tube or the internets?

[beijingyank]

Why is this guy still walking the streets amongst us? This guy needs to be on food stamps to realize the value of honesty and the dollar.

[Cheyenne]

Pitch--

I watch it on the idiot box for the most part, though I catch a fair number of segments online. It's one of the only things I'll watch on TV outside of one-offs like a sporting event or a 60 Minutes or a Frontline. It's stupid, but I feel like I'm doing what I can to help whatever ratings RT has.

Anyhow, here's Lyster's show with Barofsky. She's clearly read his book quite carefully, and it's an outstanding segment. You just wish she had another hour or two with the guy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlAwaZ2T1Z4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Pitchfork]

Awesome. Thanks for the link, Cheyenne.