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March 07, 2009

Fire Geithner movement gains steam

Henry Blogdett, comparing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to recent hero pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, says Geither is inflexible and mentally rigid, and that his years as NY Fed head give him no excuse.

Megan McArdle says it’s partially President Obama’s fault for not getting more Treasury hiring done.

Abroad, former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating says we shouldn’t be surprised by Geithner; all we had to do was look at his 1997-98 performance during the Asian monetary crisis, while he was at the International Monetary Fund, to show that.

Echoing Blodgett, he says Geithner inflexibly applied old ideas to new problems — and did that after misdiagnosing the problem in the first place.

It was so bad, Keating says, that’s why China still doesn’t trust the IMF a decade later, and why it’s hoarded so much money.

That all sheds more light on the new Wall Street Journal story on whom Geithner might be sheltering by refusing to name AIG bailout beneficiaries.

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