Hi folks, Steve here, and in light of Geitner's conformation on Monday, i am here to present Facts and Opinion of why he's not what americans want for this seat. Ok Facts first, then i'll get to my opinion at the end of the post.
First off, let's start with his history of jobs in Taxes. In 1985 Geitner worked for Kissinger and Associates in D.C., a firm that identifies strategic partners and investment oppertunities for many companies including many of the companies that make up the Dow Industrial Average (JPMorgan Chase, American Express, Coca-Cola, ect.) after three years of working in D.C. After that he joined the US Treasury and started in the international affairs Division of the Treasury department in 1988, then to serve in Tokyo in the US Embassy there (perhaps he's the reason why the Japanese economy crashed back in the 1990s, just a suggestion). for a year he was deputy assistant secretary for the international monetary and finnancal policy (1995-96), senior deputy assistant fir international affairs ('96-'97) and assistant secretary for international affairs ('97-'98). After that he was undersecretary for the Treasury for international affairs ('98 - '01) under the clinton secretares of Robert Rubin and Lawence Summers
in 2002 he left the Treasury (finnaly) to join the Council on Forgin Realations and became the director of the policy development and Review Department of the the international Monetary Fund. His time at the International Monetary Fund is very intresting, as the three years he was there (2001-'03, but i don't understand why he had two government positions at this time)
Also, in the 90s, he managed the multiple international Crises in Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand. I'll start with what was wrong in Brazil, Brazil's collaspe in the 1990s, was due to hyperinflation and a bankrupt public sector, the plan called for a new imaginary currency which was roughly equal to the US dollar. all prices were quoted in both the imaginary currency and the real currency (which, at the time, wascruzeiro) but all payments must be done through the Cruzeiro. several attemps to stablize the hyperinflation rates failed and Brazil was forced to adopt a new currency. the new currency (called the real, or reais if plural). though this plan ultimatly failed in '99, it was a good idea. All of these ideas came out of the U.S. treasury office at the time, and failed, the economy right now is still in the slumps and mostlikely falling further as this recession (which in the stock market is leveling out) deepens.[please note, i don't know how accurate this report on the brazil economic catastrophy, it's a wikipedia page]
The Mexico 'crisis' can be summed up rather quickly, the peso collasped late in '94 and caused the economy to contract by about 7% in '95, by '96 it started to come back out of the recession. no more information found on this crisis
Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea all fall into the same Financial Crisis in 1997. The crisis allegedly started in Thailand with their decision to float, or take the hands off of it, the Thai baht, their national currency. Already an almost bankrupt country through forgin debt (sound famillar?) this essentally lead to the collaspe of the south-east asian market. the next stop is Indonesia, they made the mistake of widening the rupiah trading band from 8%-12%. after that the rupiah dropped sharply as the IMF (international monetary fund) rushed in with a rescue package of 23 billion (note, it still didn't work, much like today's economy). in November, the accounting books found that companies, loosing money, started to invest in US dollars through the selling of rupiah, depreciating it's value even more. Soon after that Rioting occured and the aproxamate number counted dead in Jakarta was 500 people. in '98 president Suharto was forced to resign and president Habibie took over, somehow ending the crisis. [again, the same as above applies here, wikipedia: the information center of all students strikes again]
Finally South Korea's strong economy fell as large banks defaulted on non-performing loans (essentally the mortgage crisis we're in now) as large corporations were funding large agressive expansion to compete with other world leaders like America or Japan. Many of the tiny nations' car companies were either disolved, sold to america, or taken over by Hyundai. the Won weakened severly. However, they managed to survive, though not unscathed, as the national debt:GDP ratio more than doubled. This crisis is also known as the IMF crisis.
The IMF was the cause of many of these collapses as they created a 'fast track to capitalism'. the argument was that Keynesian economics of large government spending, the propping up of corporations, and the lowering of interest rates. It didn't work and the liberalization of the financial sector (elimination of restrictions of capital flows) is the cause. This fast track is remarkable similar to our own economy as we head into this recession, and the solution is exactly the same. What needed to be done was not the Keynesian economics but the supply-side economic strategy, which focuses on tax cuts rather than sudden injection of money. Geitner worked with the IMF during the 90s to help fix the problem they caused, but honestly, I don't see how he helped, if he was surrounded by such tragic economies which were harsh and have lasting effects all the way until today, what will running this country and thus all other countries' economies do in this recession. [this is wikipedia]
Now onto the debate on why he is unfit for the job. Well for one, $34,023 of self-employment taxes while in the IMF. of course, the question of how can a 'genius' like him be so stupid to forget about such a thing AND still be allowed into the head of the IRS? i doubt he'll let us do the same mistake. Also, Democrats have it so easy whenever they do anything wrong (unless you're blago, in which case you're excommunicated) It's a double standard. If anyone on a republican side of the isle has tax problems, never mind tax EVASION, then they are expected to resign immediately, regardless of what position they have. Not only that he also recieved a severence payment from the Federal Reserve bank in New York upwards of $434,500 dollars, ontop of his $411k salary. This guy screams corruption and we're putting him in charge of our monetary system, I don't see how we're going to survive the next few years with the stimulus bill and this guy incharge of handing it out. [most of this is from a fox news report]
First off, let's start with his history of jobs in Taxes. In 1985 Geitner worked for Kissinger and Associates in D.C., a firm that identifies strategic partners and investment oppertunities for many companies including many of the companies that make up the Dow Industrial Average (JPMorgan Chase, American Express, Coca-Cola, ect.) after three years of working in D.C. After that he joined the US Treasury and started in the international affairs Division of the Treasury department in 1988, then to serve in Tokyo in the US Embassy there (perhaps he's the reason why the Japanese economy crashed back in the 1990s, just a suggestion). for a year he was deputy assistant secretary for the international monetary and finnancal policy (1995-96), senior deputy assistant fir international affairs ('96-'97) and assistant secretary for international affairs ('97-'98). After that he was undersecretary for the Treasury for international affairs ('98 - '01) under the clinton secretares of Robert Rubin and Lawence Summers
in 2002 he left the Treasury (finnaly) to join the Council on Forgin Realations and became the director of the policy development and Review Department of the the international Monetary Fund. His time at the International Monetary Fund is very intresting, as the three years he was there (2001-'03, but i don't understand why he had two government positions at this time)
Also, in the 90s, he managed the multiple international Crises in Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand. I'll start with what was wrong in Brazil, Brazil's collaspe in the 1990s, was due to hyperinflation and a bankrupt public sector, the plan called for a new imaginary currency which was roughly equal to the US dollar. all prices were quoted in both the imaginary currency and the real currency (which, at the time, wascruzeiro) but all payments must be done through the Cruzeiro. several attemps to stablize the hyperinflation rates failed and Brazil was forced to adopt a new currency. the new currency (called the real, or reais if plural). though this plan ultimatly failed in '99, it was a good idea. All of these ideas came out of the U.S. treasury office at the time, and failed, the economy right now is still in the slumps and mostlikely falling further as this recession (which in the stock market is leveling out) deepens.[please note, i don't know how accurate this report on the brazil economic catastrophy, it's a wikipedia page]
The Mexico 'crisis' can be summed up rather quickly, the peso collasped late in '94 and caused the economy to contract by about 7% in '95, by '96 it started to come back out of the recession. no more information found on this crisis
Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea all fall into the same Financial Crisis in 1997. The crisis allegedly started in Thailand with their decision to float, or take the hands off of it, the Thai baht, their national currency. Already an almost bankrupt country through forgin debt (sound famillar?) this essentally lead to the collaspe of the south-east asian market. the next stop is Indonesia, they made the mistake of widening the rupiah trading band from 8%-12%. after that the rupiah dropped sharply as the IMF (international monetary fund) rushed in with a rescue package of 23 billion (note, it still didn't work, much like today's economy). in November, the accounting books found that companies, loosing money, started to invest in US dollars through the selling of rupiah, depreciating it's value even more. Soon after that Rioting occured and the aproxamate number counted dead in Jakarta was 500 people. in '98 president Suharto was forced to resign and president Habibie took over, somehow ending the crisis. [again, the same as above applies here, wikipedia: the information center of all students strikes again]
Finally South Korea's strong economy fell as large banks defaulted on non-performing loans (essentally the mortgage crisis we're in now) as large corporations were funding large agressive expansion to compete with other world leaders like America or Japan. Many of the tiny nations' car companies were either disolved, sold to america, or taken over by Hyundai. the Won weakened severly. However, they managed to survive, though not unscathed, as the national debt:GDP ratio more than doubled. This crisis is also known as the IMF crisis.
The IMF was the cause of many of these collapses as they created a 'fast track to capitalism'. the argument was that Keynesian economics of large government spending, the propping up of corporations, and the lowering of interest rates. It didn't work and the liberalization of the financial sector (elimination of restrictions of capital flows) is the cause. This fast track is remarkable similar to our own economy as we head into this recession, and the solution is exactly the same. What needed to be done was not the Keynesian economics but the supply-side economic strategy, which focuses on tax cuts rather than sudden injection of money. Geitner worked with the IMF during the 90s to help fix the problem they caused, but honestly, I don't see how he helped, if he was surrounded by such tragic economies which were harsh and have lasting effects all the way until today, what will running this country and thus all other countries' economies do in this recession. [this is wikipedia]
Now onto the debate on why he is unfit for the job. Well for one, $34,023 of self-employment taxes while in the IMF. of course, the question of how can a 'genius' like him be so stupid to forget about such a thing AND still be allowed into the head of the IRS? i doubt he'll let us do the same mistake. Also, Democrats have it so easy whenever they do anything wrong (unless you're blago, in which case you're excommunicated) It's a double standard. If anyone on a republican side of the isle has tax problems, never mind tax EVASION, then they are expected to resign immediately, regardless of what position they have. Not only that he also recieved a severence payment from the Federal Reserve bank in New York upwards of $434,500 dollars, ontop of his $411k salary. This guy screams corruption and we're putting him in charge of our monetary system, I don't see how we're going to survive the next few years with the stimulus bill and this guy incharge of handing it out. [most of this is from a fox news report]
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