Stress Test

“Not Enough”

Geithner reminds readers that he angered both sides of the political aisle. He nudged Obama and Summers away from aggressive reforms and back toward the center. Soon after Obama chose Geithner to deal with the financial crisis, Geithner writes, he and Obama discussed the new president’s goals for his first term. “Your accomplishment is going to be preventing a second Great Depression,” Geithner told Obama. “That’s not enough for me,” Obama replied. Later, the former president of Mexico warned Geithner, “No matter what you do, no matter how you do it, the people are going to hate it.” Geithner maintains he did the right by the American people.

Centrist Career

After a happy childhood as an expat, Geithner attended Dartmouth College and Johns Hopkins University and studied in China. Then he rose through the ranks in Washington. He worked as an undersecretary to President Bill Clinton’s Treasury secretaries Robert Rubin and Summers, before taking a position at the International Monetary Fund. Two dubious honors defined Geithner’s career, both near no-win situations. When the global economy crashed after an orgy of excess, Geithner led the New York Fed, leading to the question: If Geithner’s such a genius, not to mention a responsible steward of the public trust, why didn’t he see the crisis coming? Next came a promotion to Treasury secretary under Obama and the thankless task of bailing out Wall Street in 2009. Fixing something as massive, complex and ambiguous as the US financial system invites second-guessing. Bankers and Republicans bashed the rescue Geithner orchestrated as punitive and intrusive. Progressives have panned it as not punitive or intrusive enough. “We did save the economy, but we lost the country doing it,” Geithner writes.