Timothy F. Geithner: capitalist criminal

On Jan. 26, Timothy Geithner became the U.S. secretary of the treasury. A former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and capitalist insider, his confirmation was met with widespread approval on Wall Street. When word came out that President Obama was planning to nominate Geithner in November 2008, the stock market rose 300 points.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Capitalist Criminal

Since his confirmation, Geithner has orchestrated the handing over of trillions of dollars in government bailouts to the biggest corporations and financial institutions. He has protected the criminally large salaries and bonuses of executives and helped to unleash a vicious attack on workers.

He facilitated and protected the $165 million in bonuses the executives at insurance giant AIG pounced on, like predators on prey, after receiving $170 billion in bailout money. In May, Geithner rejected calls from legislators to put caps on the outrageous salaries of banking executives—the same executives who helped bring on the economic crisis.

The Treasury Department under Geithner has also put the squeeze on union autoworkers through lopsided restructuring plans for bankrupt General Motors and Chrysler. He has helped enforce brutal take backs, including wage reductions, benefit cuts and plant closures.

Geithner, a Dartmouth College and Johns Hopkins graduate, began working for the U.S. Treasury Department in 1988, where he held many positions under three different administrations. From 1999 to 2001, Geithner was under secretary of the treasury for international affairs, for a time serving under Wall Street fat cat and current Obama chief economic advisor Larry Summers.

In 2001, Geithner became director of the Policy Development and Review Department at the International Monetary Fund, an institution dedicated to bleeding dry oppressed nations all over the globe. He then took on the position of president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The New York Fed is the bank that carries out the monetary policy dictated by the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C.

Geithner is a clear-as-day example of the non-existent boundary between big business and the U.S. government. The banks and Wall Street can rest assured that, despite Obama’s rhetoric of bringing fundamental change to the way the government operates, they have one of their own administering the Treasury Department in their interests.