Rodney Geithner
I may have to start calling Timmy! Rodney instead–as in “I don’t get no respect” Rodney Dangerfield. The latest Timmy!/Rodney smackdown came from German Member of European Parliament Werner Langen, a major player in European financial regulation: the FT calls it a stinging rebuke, and if you read the article, you’ll find that a fair characterization. Langen accuses Geithner of misstating the changes in derivatives regulation that the G20 agreed to, and attempting to force Europe to do things that it did not commit to do.
The undiplomatic rhetoric–disses, really–directed at Geithner is pretty astounding. As I said earlier, I cannot recall anything like them directed with such regularity at any other US cabinet official.
Take it away, Rodney!:
Timmy is also the most politically partisan Treasury Secretart I can remember. When his predecessors were faced with a decision to disagree with the President’s policies on economic grounds, they generally demurred and avoided the question. Timmy doesn’t hesitate to say some of the most absurd things to back up he (questionable at best) political calculations of Obama. Timmy’s choice to subjugate economics to Obama’s political agenda is, in my mind, much of what is driving the ridicule coming from economic realists.
Comment by Charles — June 17, 2011 @ 10:04 am
Timmy! just has this certain ring to it though…
Comment by ThomasL — June 17, 2011 @ 11:05 am
[…] Introducing Tim “Rodney” […]
Pingback by FT Alphaville » Further further reading — June 17, 2011 @ 1:01 pm
Ja ja, because Herr Bernanke did such a gut jhob back in Weimar days, ja…
Comment by Mr. X — June 18, 2011 @ 5:39 pm
P.S. SWP, is there any legitimacy to this claim that Frank N’Dodd (since I know this is one of the weirst pieces of legislation ever, in your book) is being used to kill over the counter trading in gold? In other words, are a hop and skip from FDR’s confiscation policy of the early 30s?
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/trading-over-counter-gold-and-silver-be-illegal-beginning-july-15
Comment by Mr. X — June 18, 2011 @ 5:43 pm
weirst [sic] worst. Should I cling more bitterly to my gold, as Stanislav Mishin said, and is the proud American boasting of his liberty as he’s put in globalist/NWO chains, while the cold-hearted Putinists snicker?
Comment by Mr. X — June 18, 2011 @ 5:45 pm
oh yeah, and this — will this ban private U.S. citizens who are not themselves a certified, listed broker/dealer from trading dollars for Swiss Francs, Euros, et al?
Sounds like the screws are being turned tight shortly before the dollar tanks and more Americans get desperate to get out of it.
And apparently not just another ZH “we’re headed for the U.S. of Argentina” rumor, see here:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/218529-obama-threatens-forex-says-goodbye-to-otc-gold-trading
Comment by Mr. X — June 18, 2011 @ 5:48 pm
[…] being treated with the disdain that Geithner regularly encounters abroad. He is truly DC’s Rodney Dangerfield. He has yet to learn that gratuitous and hypocritical advice is not the way to win friends and […]
Pingback by Streetwise Professor » Friday Smackdown–Timmy! Edition. — September 16, 2011 @ 12:46 pm