Geithner's Big Failure

Tim Geithner failed miserably in his first major public presentation. Financial services analyst Tom Brown puts it best:

There’s so much wrong about Geithner’s presentation yesterday and the “details” of the plan he outlined, it would take days to cover...

Let’s start with the tone of Geithner’s presentation. It was as agitated and panic-stricken as every other recent White House pronouncement on the economy: “As costly as this effort may be,” Geithner said, “we know that the cost of a complete collapse of our financial system would be incalculable for families, for businesses and for our nation.”

A possible “complete collapse of our financial system.”? Helpful! Why is it that the Obama people feel compelled to describe the current economic situation in the absolute darkest possible terms, and predict the direst possible outcomes if their proposals aren’t enacted? The financial system, I shouldn’t have to remind anyone, depends at its core on trust and confidence. These people are supposed to be trying to save the financial system. The last thing they should be doing—the last thing—is running down trust and confidence.

Read the whole piece.