Tim Geithner With Katie Couric (CBS Interview Broadcast Sep. 14)
Very average performance from Couric. Geithner needs to be interviewed with a heavy hand to get him to answer anything honestly and directly. Video and transcript are inside.
Watch (video is below)
Timothy Geithner: A year ago, people for the first time in a century in this country were wondering about whether they should keep their money in banks.
But today, you have a lot of private capital came into the financial system. The system is stronger because of that. Borrowing costs have coming down for corporations and for families. Those are the initial signs of improvement. And that's why -- why the economy is starting to grow again.
Katie Couric: Having said that, it's been a year since Lehman collapsed. And yet, Congress has passed only one major piece of financial regulation having to do with credit cards. Derivatives still largely unregulated. Huge bonuses are back. So what has really changed?
Geithner: Katie, we're gonna change this financial system fundamentally. We have to. 'Cause we can't afford to let this country be in a position again where you can suffer this much damage. And that's gonna require a comprehensive reform. But it requires legislation.
Couric: This kind of headline must give you indigestion. It says "Progress is slow on regulatory overhaul, posing risk of even bigger crisis."
Geithner: Again, I, actually I think Congress is gonna move this year. I think they're gonna move earlier than any country in response to past crisis has thought about reform.
Couric: Let me ask you about bonuses because some firms cutting back - on them are actually raising salaries. As you know, five of the biggest banks set aside $60 billion to cover compensation. That's just $17 billion less than 2007. And with layoffs that's a lot of fewer people getting that money. So doesn't this amount to business as usual in many ways?
Geithner: But it, we can't let business as usual, we can't let things go back to where they were.
Couric: But isn't this a shell game? They're just putting more money for salaries, and less for bonuses-and people are still getting mega payments?
Geithner: --If that?s what happens, then we would have failed.
Couric: Someone is going to have to pay down the mountain of debt created by this financial crisis. Do you believe Mr. Secretary-- an across the board tax increase is inevitable?
Geithner: And I think people recognize that these deficits are unsustainable. And if we're gonna have a stronger economy in the future we have to bring them down.
Couric: Is an across the board tax increase inevitable?
Geithner: I don't-- I don't think so, no.
Couric: As you know economic growth is powered by consumer spending. In a recent Gallup Poll found that 70 percent of Americans are cutting expenses. So what out there-- Secretary Geithner - might light a fire under the economy and create sustainable growth?
Geithner: It's gonna come gradually. But the first step is to pull the economy back from the abyss.
Couric: And do you really feel that you have done everything in your power to put systems in place as quickly as possible--possible to prevent a financial crisis of this magnitude from ever happening again?
Geithner: Not absolutely. N-- not yet. But as I said that requires Congress legislating reforms.
Sep 15, 2009 at 7:48 AM
Reader Comments (12)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125297744960710625.html
AAA, n., obsolete. A rhetorical device used to dupe buyers into purchasing securities backed by shacks dressed as houses, and to secure the highest possible spot in telephone directories. Common usage: AAA Septic Drainage and Mortgage Backed Security Services.
BANK, GOOD, n., archaic. Sober, conservative, risk-averse institutions designed to midwife customers' capital and enable prudent lending to deserving businesses and consumers. See Capra, F., the Bailey Building & Loan Association.
BANK, BAD, n. 1. Everyone else. 2. Especially Goldman Sachs.
QUANTITATIVE EASING, n. A regulatory approach based on the point in Western movies when the sheriff, having fired all available bullets, in an act of final desperation throws his gun at the bad guys. See also INFLATION, HYPER.
U-SHAPED RECOVERY, n . An opportunity for economists to incorrectly predict the timing and nature of the recession's end just as successfully as they incorrectly predicted its inception, depth and duration. Variants include V-shaped recovery, L-shaped recovery and :-( shaped recovery.
HISTORY WILL SOON UNFOLD TO PUT YOU IN RIGHT PLACE WHERE YOU ALL BELONG
DR. RON PAUL IS ONLY THE ONE WHO WILL SHINE IN GOLDEN LETTERS OF 2ND REVOLUTION NOW...
Same criminal terrorist are your economic advisors
More spin speeches but contrary actions proof:
MUST SEE - RON PAUL INTERVIEW - Scarborough says Ron Paul was ALWAYS RIGHT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilcr6akrwoE&feature=player_embedded#t=539
mark, me too. I think about this ALL the time. Of course, an interview could also be pretty entertaining. ;-)
Geitner gave this interview to build confidence in intelligent, informed television viewers not to convince economic pundits, political philosophers and investors.
He's describing many hoped for economic outcomes as if they are more or less in the process of occurring. What else can he do? Sure, America might be on the brink of economic collapse but it is not his job to talk about that possibility. It's up to his critics to do that, not him.
He did what he was supposed to do and no one should expect him to have said anything else. He's just saying that the glasses are half full, all of them and not half empty. Why so much disappointment, cynicism and anger? Politics has always been that way and always will be.
"Why so much disappointment, cynicism and anger? Politics has always been that way and always will be. "
James I get your point. The reason everyone around here takes Geithner interviews so seriously is that we have been waiting months for certain question to be ASKED...let alone answered:
http://dailybail.com/home/submit-video-and-written-questions-for-cnbcs-town-hall-with.html
Read the questions I ask as well as our commenters...we have been waiting for an official response for a long time and through many interviews...
I tend to skewer the interviewers more than Geithner himself...it is their fault they don't know the issues well enough to ask the right questions...
But, through it all, none of us forget or forgive Turbo for everything he does and did at the NY Fed on behalf of the Wall Street oligarchy that he was supposed to be policing...
He's a freaking failure of massive proportions and the financial MSM doesn't even know the right questions to ask...
I love The Devil's Dictionary-- Financial Edition, thanks for posting