From Bloomberg, at 2:27PM EST…
Geithner Said to Plan Departure Before Debt Ceiling Deal
Hans Nichols
Bloomberg Media
January 3rd, 2013 2:27 PM EST
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plans to leave the administration at the end of January, even if President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans haven’t reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, according to two people familiar with the matter.
After giving in to Obama’s previous entreaties to stay as long as needed, Geithner has indicated to White House officials and Wall Street executives that he is unlikely to change his departure plans this time, increasing pressure on the president to name his successor at Treasury, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss the private talks…
The article then points out that Geithner “...is the only remaining member of Obama’s original economic team and was a key figure in the taxpayer- funded bailouts during the 2008 financial crisis.” He had a leading role (along with Vice President Biden) in negotiations with “Congress on the budget deal and in past deliberations over the debt ceiling.”
The Bloomberg article continues…
White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew remains the leading contender for the Treasury job, the people said. Because Lew’s experience in financial markets is thin, Obama may seek to name a Wall Street executive as deputy Treasury secretary, they said.
While Lew, 57, worked as a managing director for Citigroup from July 2006 until the end of 2008, he’s spent most of his career in government. He served as director of the Office of Management and Budget for both Obama and President Bill Clinton and was an aide to the late Tip O’Neill, former speaker of the U.S. House.
Lew succeeded William M. Daley (who serves on the Board of
The Third Way) as White House Chief of Staff in January 2012.
As I noted in a post on November 13th…
…Jack Lew was a top Citigroup executive before he joined the administration. Daley was a prominent board member of JPMorgan Chase for many years before he joined team Obama. (i.e.: The banks still run the place.)
Between the two of them, they executed the White House's strategy with regard to "fiscal cliff" negotiations on Capitol Hill [in 2011 and throughout a significant portion of 2012…
As noted in a cross-post
by University of Missouri at Kansas City Professor Bill Black on November 13th (my second post for that day):
…[The Third Way are] lobbyists for and from Wall Street who are leading the effort to enrich Wall Street by privatizing Social Security, was created by Wall Street to fool some of the people all of the time. I have written previously to expose their fictional claims to be a moderate or liberal Democratic group…
In my other post on November 13th (linked above), I also noted that Lew was the person responsible (back when Daley was Chief of Staff, and Lew was the lead person in the White House for the budget) for running the office which authored the infamous “
Gang of Six” memo (the memo was actually written by Rob Nabors, who worked closely with Lew, managing his budget office’s legislative efforts).
Per the Wiki, on the Gang of Six (in 2011):
…In July 2011, the Gang of Six proposed a solution to the US debt ceiling crisis. The compromise would reduce future increases in the deficit by USD $3.7 trillion over ten years and was praised by President Barack Obama.[7][8] The deficit figure quoted represents an estimated reduction in the continued growth of the debt. It also has been met with criticism from congressional Republicans[9][10] and conservative groups for being, according to The Heritage Foundation, "heavy on tax hikes and promises of spending cuts, but devoid of details on how to make the sweeping transformative changes needed to solve our debt and spending crises."[11]
Again, I strongly urge you to read the entire Bloomberg article, from about an hour ago. It is a lengthy and very thorough piece. (
HERE’S THE LINK.)