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Guest Post: The Case Against Geithner
Submitted by Dylan Ratigan
As we sit here today, Wall Street continues to exploit a policy of government-sponsored giveaways and secrecy to pay themselves billions.
Record-setting bonuses due to banks like Goldman Sachs as early next week.
Yet instead of acting as our cop, Secretary Tim Geithner has become central to what may be a cover-up of the greatest theft in U.S. history.
Here is the evidence.
COUNT 1: The AIG Emails:
Recently-released emails show Geithner's New York Federal Reserve Bank directing AIG to keep details of the 100-cents-on-the-dollar bailout secret in 2008 -- A reversal of the traditional role of government, which is to force companies to become more transparent, not less.
A Treasury Spokeswoman says: "Secretary Geithner played no role in these decisions and indeed, by November 24, he was recused from working on issues involving specific companies, including AIG."
Friday, the White House also defended the Treasury Secretary:
Gibbs: These decisions did not rise to his level at the fed.
CNN's Ed Henry: How do you know that he wasn't involved? He was the leader of the New York Fed.
Gibbs: Right, but he wasn't on the emails that have been talked about and wasn't party to the decision that was being made.
He wasn't party to a decision to hide $62 billion dollar payouts to firms that became insolvent during his 5-year watch at the New York Fed?
Congressman Darrell Issa speculates that maybe Geithner wasn't on the emails in question because his people felt so strongly they already knew their boss's intentions, they didn't feel the need to bother him with the details.
COUNT 2: He wasn't even a regulator!
In Geithner's own words during confirmation hearings in March:
"First of all, I've never been a regulator...I'm not a regulator."
According to the New York fed bank's website, that was your job!! And I quote from the Fed's website: "As part of our core mission, we supervise and regulate financial institutions in the Second District."
That district of course is the epicenter for bailed out banks and billion dollar bonuses.
Count 3: "The Christmas Eve Taxpayer Massacre."
As you were wrapping those last presents, Geithner's Treasury Department lifted the 400-billion dollar cap on taxpayer responsibility for potential losses for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The new cap? Unlimited taxpayer funds! Interesting timing... Christmas eve, Tim?
Still no word on recovering the hundreds of millions paid to the CEOs who created this mess.
COUNT 4: He's too cozy with certain banks.
Remember those call logs when he first started... 80 contacts with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and CitiGroup CEOs in just 7 months!
But Bank of America's CEO only got three calls. Apparently Bank of America is not one of Geithner's favorites, especially when you consider that there are still many unanswered questions about Tim Geithner's role in threatening to fire Bank of America management if they didn't go through with a deal to buy Merrill lynch.
COUNT 5: TARP Special Investigator Neil Barofsky's report says Geithner's New York Fed overpaid the big banks through AIG by billions of dollars.
Geithner says it had to be done. Maybe so, maybe not, but this takes us to our final point.
Since then, the Treasury Secretary has yet to really prove whose side he's on -- the Wall Street big wigs or the American taxpayer? Here's the litmus test: Mr. Geithner, show us the past ten years of AIG emails or step down so that we can get somebody who will. A crime has been committed against the American taxpayer and right now you are standing at the door of the crime scene refusing to let anyone in.
Show us you're not involved Mr. Geithner, prove the white house correct in defending you. All we are asking for is the transparency promised by the President you serve.
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great to see a post by Dylan. Did he submit this directly to ZH?
Here's the link
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34811663#34811663
Video version. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/#34811663
Dylan's a ZH reader, he prolly submitted it. He retweets stuff from here all the time:
http://twitter.com/DylanRatigan/status/7631579619
I imagine he's mentioned the site on his show at some point, but I usually didn't catch his AM show. Gonna start TIVOing his new 4:00 timeslot. I like the idea of a post-market show anyway.
Old news Dylan ......millions know the game is fixed. We feel hopeless. The deck is stacked .....
http://kliguy38depression2news.blogspot.com/
Dylan Ratigan:
Show us you're not involved Mr. Geithner, prove the white house correct in defending you. All we are asking for is the transparency promised by the President you serve.
Timothy Geithner:
No, and what the fuck you gonna do about it?
Democracy is soooo empowering!
The thing that puzzles me the most about Geithner is that he blamed software for causing him to fail to pay $ 138,000 in federal income tax. Geithner is a government mule. His pay is subject to mandatory withholding. Any income from interest and investments are reported on a W-9.
Figuring that his taxable income is subject to 38% tax rate, he failed to report approximately $ 363,000 in taxable income.
Where does a government mule get that kind of money that was not subject to mandatory withholding or mandatory reporting by the source that paid him the money?
Those darn high frequency tax avoidance solutions!
Where? A bag carrier? Hillary's chicken futures traders? Offshore accounts? These are the normal places one's thoughts turn these days, what with the Fed/Treasury secrecy, AIG's apparent misstatement of accounts, abridgement of contract law a la GM and Chrysler, the size and asset composition of the Fed's balance sheet, unlimited funding of those GSE's. The personal thoughts and rage, so to speak.
Importantly though, it matters not our personal opinions on these matters, for what is important are the opinions of the other (offshore entities) holders of US dollars. And might we surmise that it is becoming somewhat more onerous these days to suggest to one's boss at an offshore entity that one be indifferent between say, $US and $A or $C?
Is it no wonder as reported nicely today in the WSJ that China, as they have said they would do many times, is off on a global materials buying binge, what with their demographics and economic awakening. Destinies call.
Anger not for it clouds the mind, but invest accordingly. Materials, commodities, gold, emerging market equities (where real stuff is made by real growing middle class folk). A veritable offshore "American Dream" of old unfolding, coming true.
Wall Street Journal January 14, 2009: " The tax issue relates to Mr. Geithner's work for the International Monetary Fund between 2001 and 2004. As an American citizen working for the IMF, Mr. Geithner was technically considered self-employed and was required to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself as both an employer and an employee.
The IMF and World Bank reimburse employees, including U.S. citizens, for their U.S. income taxes. They don't, however, make contributions toward Social Security and Medicare taxes, which individuals are expected to pay on their own. In 2006, the IRS audited Mr. Geithner's 2003 and 2004 taxes and concluded he owed taxes and interest totaling $17,230, according to documents released by the Senate Finance Committee. The IRS waived the related penalties.
During the vetting of Mr. Geithner late last year, the Obama transition team discovered the nominee had failed to pay the same taxes for 2001 and 2002. "Upon learning of this error on Nov. 21, 2008, Mr. Geithner immediately submitted payment for tax that would have been due in those years, plus interest," a transition aide said. The sum totaled $25,970.
The Obama team said Mr. Geithner's taxes have been paid in full, and that he didn't intend to avoid payment, but made a mistake common for employees of international institutions. That characterization was contested by Senate Finance Republicans, who produced IMF documents showing that employees are repeatedly told they are responsible for paying their payroll taxes.
As to why Mr. Geithner didn't pay all his back taxes after the 2006 audit, an Obama aide said the nominee was advised by his accountant he had no further liability. Senate Finance aides said they were concerned either Mr. Geithner or his accountant used the IRS's statute of limitations to avoid further back-tax payments at the time of the audit.
Other tax issues also surfaced during the vetting, including the fact Mr. Geithner used his child's time at overnight camps in 2001, 2004 and 2005 to calculate dependent-care tax deductions. Sleepaway camps don't qualify.
Amended tax returns that Mr. Geithner filed recently include $4,334 in additional taxes, and $1,232 in interest for infractions, such as an early-withdrawal penalty from a retirement plan, an improper small-business deduction, a charitable-contribution deduction for ineligible items, and the expensing of utility costs that went for personal use.
The other cloud for Mr. Geithner involved an immigrant housekeeper whose work-authorization papers expired during her tenure working for Mr. Geithner. For three months, until she stopped working for the family to have a baby, the woman was working on the expired papers. An Obama aide said the woman reapplied for the papers and received them, and now resides legally in the U.S.
Mr. Geithner, 47 years old, has been a central figure in the government's efforts to tackle the housing collapse and its aftermath. He has spent most of his career managing government responses to financial crises."
Need more? Traitor and a tax cheat. But he is just a pawn in all of this, a supplicant yearning for entry into the Big Boys club. He sold his soul long ago.
I remember an interview of Ratigan when he was still with CNBC - he may well have been the first person I ever heard use the term 'vampire capitalism' in the mainstream media.
He's grown quite a handsome pair since his stint at BubbleVision ended.
Thanks Dylan. Keep counting.
All we are really asking is to demonstrate the virtues you supposedly embody; if Goldman is /Gawd, i guess that makes Timmay, Christ.
Be the American ideal Timmay, just do the right thing, for once in your life; stop running, face what you have done, free your burden at the congressional confessional.
Timmay, it is time.
His outspoken comments no doubt cost him his job at CNBC......the network execs saved some face in my mind by giving him another platform
Kudos Mr. Ratigan!
lol you have that backwards. CNBC wanted to keep him, but he wanted to do something other than just business news, he wanted to become a network anchor. So they offered him the position at MSNBC.
He quit them. I think being complicit with all of those other jackals was too much for him. I could imagine him leaving his fingerprints deep in michelle caruso cabrera's larynx. There was no way for him to reveal the evils of banksterism on that network, even though msnbc has the same parent company. It continually amazes me that he has the gig.
Dylan, BRAVO!
Welcome to the truth camp, better known as Zero Hedge.
Look forward to more of your comments.
Here's the link - video
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34811663#34811663
All the crooked politicians and all the crooked banks are praying that the economy recovers, so they can keep all their criminal activity under wraps.
Having gutted out the American economy by "Outsourcing" middle class, taxpaying jobs, this time they have killed the golden goose. There is no tax base left and all the asset inflation created by Greenspan and Bernanke has left a generational legacy of mountains of unpayable debt.
The core of America is not a bunch of paper skimmers in New York and on-the-take politicians in Washington, it is (was) the American middle class, ultimately the voter.
This patch-work Frankenstein Monster of new debt, delayed accounting, and outright lies has not yet reached critical mass, but it soon will.
They can pray all they wish, but all the kings horses and all the kings men can't put the American "consumer" back together again.
I'm about to break.
I will not let this bastardized version of a Republic be what my son inherits, I will not go gently into that good night, and I'm ready to do whatever it takes to fight these criminals, so help me god.
About to break? How bout already broken.
If you don't want ur sons to inherit a mess, don't have any or move out of this joke of a country.
I'm gonna file my taxes, get my refund and get the hell outta dodge, best of luck bagholders!
| Jan. 11, 2010, 8:21 PM
Host of MSNBC's "The Dylan Ratigan Show" weeknights at 4PM ET
Posted: January 11, 2010 06:22 PM
The Case Against GeithnerGeithner's real bosses (not the People of the United States, who have had the unfortunate pleasure of paying Mr. Geithner for his treachery) hit the big time when Timmah was the "decision maker" on the AIG bailout. Their investment and trust in him paid huge dividends. Maybe someday Paulson, Geithner and Bernanke will be tried, and we will see justice done. But that is not in the cards anytime soon. Nota bene how Geithner remains "supported" by the White House, the MSM shamefully silent and complicit. Malfeasance and theft, corruption and capture are the rule of the day.
well said and accurate.
You sound like a victim.
We are powerful, it is the criminals who should be afraid, and soon they will be.
Gret work......we need to get those e-mails and follow the trail.........you'll find all the corruption you can digest for the next 10 years.
The xmas eve move highlights the stealth they will use to cover this up.
Nobody pays attention to financial news on xmas eve.
Sometimes you all forget just how important the work is of the institutions Geithner worked so tirelessly to enrich...er, save. Think of all the money they help corporations raise in IPO's and secondary offerings and rights issues and bond issuance.....all so US firms can build new factories to employ hundreds of thousands of Chinese peasants trying to throw off the yoke of poverty, then ship all the product back to the US so we can run a trade deficit large enough to allow the Chinese Government to afford the debt the US Government runs up bailing out the banks. God's work it is, I say.
We love you Dylan!!!!! (and ZH of course)--
Keep slinging the truth out there--we sure as hell arent getting it from the MSM---
CNBC--You have gone to Haiti in a handbasket since this guy left your joke of a network. How anyone can work for you and spew your corporate agenda day after day is beyond me!
Dylan Ratigan! Thanks for this great piece and thanks in advance for any future writings here!
I very much was inspired and motivated way back when you would speak out on Fast Money both to the camera and to guests, and we've of course seen that show only go downhill since your departure.
Thanks again keep up the good fight -- true patriots and journalists in the media are few and far between!
Dylan Ratigan has undergone an amazing public transformation. He may not even have to spend any time in purgatory.
Dylan Ratigan's transformation has been nothing short of miraculous. He may not even have to spend any time in purgatory.
Isn't it becoming wearisome already?
All the demands to prosecute so and so, and the resignation of this person or that, etc, etc.... because for every crooked banker or financier, there are hundreds of senators or congressmen and women that can and will shut down any investigation or prosecutorial action. Nothing but an exercise in futility.
Even if Timothy Geithner is replaced, they will find someone just as crooked, if not worse, because they know that replacing him with someone scrupulous, will lead to the eventual exposure of the criminals and crimes committed.
Even if anything is admitted to, they will collectively flip everyone the bird and say "exigent circumstances".
It will take a full blown, complete economic collapse, followed by a livid torch and pitchfork bearing populace. I would wish it doesnt have to happen, but the brakes have failed, and the car is picking up speed.
Is it possible, just possible that our whole economy is now based on extend and pretend, and that if the people really knew how messed up things were, our financial system would collapse in a day? Hence, no transparency; and hence Wall Street knowing that the government can't do much to them?
"Remember those call logs when he first started... 80 contacts with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and CitiGroup CEOs in just 7 months! But Bank of America's CEO only got three calls. Apparently Bank of America is not one of Geithner's favorites..."
Gee, wouldn't have anything to do with the fact BofA was not a significant contributor to the Obama campaign, would it?
Obama Contributors:
$994,795 - Goldman Sachs
$701,290 - Citigroup
$695,132 - J.P. Morgan
Hmmm... can't seem to find BofA on the Obama campaign contributor list. Oh wait, there it is! Oops, that's the McCain contributor list! My bad. Blue hair moment.
lol
Count 6: He can't even count.
Just ask Turbotax...
Geithner was born in Brooklyn, New York City and spent most of his childhood outside the United States, including present-day Zimbabwe, Zambia, India and Thailand where he completed high school at the International School Bangkok. He attended Dartmouth College, graduating with an A.B. in government and Asian studies in 1983. In the process he studied Mandarin at Peking University in 1981 and at Beijing Normal University in 1982. He earned an M.A. in international economics and East Asian studies from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in 1985. He has studied Chinese and Japanese.
His father, Peter F. Geithner, was the director of the Asia program at the Ford Foundation in New York in the 1990s. During the early 1980s, Peter Geithner oversaw the Ford Foundation's microfinance programs in Indonesia being developed by Ann Dunham, President Barack Obama's mother, and they met in person at least once.
I really doubt that barry will fire him from this bio, one can see there are some interesting degrees of intersection. He is the guy the President wants.
Dylan unleashed! Dylan you are a pent-up volcano who can blow the crooks at the Fed and on Wall Street sky high. Go Dylan!
Let's work both ends against the middle.... squeeze Geithner to get to the ringleaders.
First, the Towns Congressional Investigation into Geithner and the AIG cover-up at the NY Fed, if done seriously, could led to prosecutions. The really explosive potential of a Congressional Investigation goes way beyond Geithner to any and all those Fed Reserve people who made the cover-up decisions and executed the cover-up. As Tyler Durden points out yesterday's post "Cursive Geithner to Hell", an 800 pound-person-of-interest in the investigation should be Goldman Sachs Board member Stephen Friedman who was Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at the same time with Geithner and the AIG cover-up.
"When N.Y. Fed Chairman Stephen Friedman bought stock in the company that he once headed, and where he still serves as a director, he was already in violation of Federal Reserve policy and was hoping for a waiver to permit him to hold his existing multi-million-dollar stock stash and to remain on the Goldman board. The waiver was requested last October by Timothy Geithner, then the president of the N.Y. Fed and now Treasury secretary. Yet, without having received that waiver, Friedman went ahead in December and purchased 37,300 additional shares. With shares he added in January, after the waiver was granted, he ended up with 98,600 shares in Goldman Sachs, worth a total of $13,330,720 at the close of trading on Monday. Friedman was in violation of the Fed's policy because, thanks in part to the urging of Geithner and the N.Y. Fed, Goldman Sachs was allowed to become a bank holding company, making it eligible for government bailout funds (an option that Geithner had denied to Goldman rival Lehman Brothers)."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/cashing-in-on-government_b_1...
Another 800 pound-person-of-interest in the investigation of AIG cover-up should be William Dudley, NY Fed President, and Geithner accomplice at NY Fed. Geithner argued that Friedman needed to remain chairman of the N.Y. Fed board to find a suitable replacement for Geithner as he moved on to be secretary of the Treasury. Geithner and Friedman insured that William Dudley, former Goldman Sachs executive, got Geithner's job of NY Fed President. Stephen "no conflict of interest" Friedman was chairman of the search committee, and Geithner lobbied the NY Fed to appoint Dudley-do-right-by-Goldman-Sachs as NY Fed President. Friedman chose a fellow former Goldman Sachs exec for the job.
So, the Towns Congressional Investigation into AIG cover-up has the potential to blow the lid off the wide ranging criminal activity at the NY Fed. The object here is not just to bring Geithner to justice, the object is to follow the money and crimes and bring the entire criminal enterprise of Wall Street and the Fed to justice. Shock-and Awe mass trials and long prison sentences are way to clean out the current rat's nest at the Fed and on Wall Street.
Secondly, the Congressional Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission begins on Wednesday, and is another opportunity to investigate the real shot-callers pulling Geithner's strings. If the Commission takes its job seriously its investigations could lead to prosecutions of the banking industry. The Commission had better understand that the public is not interested in just history or lessons learned baloney. We want the Commission to investigate and probe these bankers to uncover the criminal enterprise that caused this crisis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/business/12sorkin.html
I would have more hope for this Commission if they hired someone like William K. Black as Chief Investigator. William Black is author of "The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One". But, for now, I'll give the Commission the benefit of the doubt.
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/blabes.html
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/profile.html
Obamageddon 2011 coming soon, just a pure, simple matter of time. Good luck America(ns), I'm planning an exit strategy. Peru, New Zealand, or Canada?
If you speak Spanish and have $100k liquid to take with you, then Peru is a good choice. You must like Latin culture and the food (which is GOOD in Peru). Peru is cheap except for imported products.
The 100% pass through to the banks from AIG is the issue, by itself, without the coverup. The 100% pass through to the banks from AIG should be the outrage, by itself, without the coverup.
At some point, it became known that the AIG bailout was being passed on (100%) to the banks. No haircut to the banks. Where was the outrage when we found out the AIG bailout was being passed through? I don't recall much of any outrage, if any, to the issue of the pass through. Yes? No? Where is the outrage beyond these pages to the AIG bailout pass through? No one is going to buy into a cover up unless they understand that the pass through itself was outrageous.
unfortunately, the outrage was strategically focused on the aig bonuses at the time. there were a few astute reporters who publicized this, ratigan and blodgett included.
Timmie is a tax cheat. That means, he is a liar. So, it should not be surprising that he would mis-represent anything and everything. Nothing he does should be a surprise.
Timmie shouldn't have been appointed to anything. The fact that he was, reflects strongly on the state of America today.
Geithner is a hero, losers.
"It is clear that there is a relatively small group of decision- makers inside Iran," [Hillary Rodham Clinton] said. "They are in both political and commercial relationships, and if we can create a sanctions track that targets those who actually make the decisions, we think that is a smarter way to do sanctions."
"It is clear that there is a relatively small group of decision- makers inside the USA," Gold Buggery said. "They are in both political and commercial relationships, and if we can create a sanctions track that targets those who actually make the decisions, we think that is a smarter way to do sanctions." Make War and Money at the Same Time!
How in hell can the head of any organization not be held accountable for its actions? Oh, right, we're dealing with our government - for the people and by the people. The only people who count, however, are the world's bankers. This should enrage the American middle class into action. Whatever it takes to bring these criminals to justice and fix the broken system.
"His outspoken comments no doubt cost him his job at CNBC..."
I prefer to believe Ratigan got totally disgusted with the non-stop Kool-Aid BS the "First in Cr@p Worldwide" propaganda outlet spreads that he could no longer work for them. I am surprised he stayed in the NBCUniversal family.
Now Ratigan does what his conscious demands. Expose the BS. Show the lies. Pull the carpet back and show the people all those ugly turds Wall Street/Fed/Treasury have hidden from the public.
If there is a just God, there will be a specially nasty place in Hell for those Shills/Pundits/Talking Heads who defend & protect the Gangster Banksters and Wall Street Machine by deceiving the People and hiding from them the truth.
As someone here said, "The tricoteuse are beginning to knit faster."