Beginning with his tax difficulties, and continuing through the puzzling narrative of when and what he knew about the AIG bonuses, Treasury Secretary Geithner has done little to inspire the confidence of the American people. Oddly, Secretary Geithner continued his bizarre and puzzling conduct this week, making flatly contradictory statements about the dollar in a span of only 24 hours. This weakens confidence not only in him, but in the currency he is entrusted to protect.
On Tuesday, Secretary Geithner testified before the House Financial Services Committee that he ‘categorically renounces,’ recent proposals from China and others to shift away from the dollar as the world’s reserve currency [see hearing transcript below]. The next morning in New York, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, he was asked about the same proposals and said he is ‘quite open,’ to them [see press report below].
Really, Mr. Secretary? Is it too much to ask that your position remain unchanged over a 24 hour period?
Excerpt from Secretary Geithner’s March 24th testimony before the Financial Services Committee at approximately 11:30am:
http://gop.gov/resources/library/members/az/03/World-Currency-Question-3-24.wmv
Representative Bachmann: We’ve seen both China, Russia, and Kazakhstan, make calls for an international monetary conversion to an international monetary standard as soon as the G20, and I’m wondering would you categorically renounce the United States moving away from the dollar and going to a global currency as suggested this morning by China and also by Russia, Mr. Secretary?
Secretary Geithner: I would, yes.
As reported in the Washington Times:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/26/geithner-gaffe-on-dollar-roils-stock-bond-markets/
An unguarded comment by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on Wednesday set off a sudden drop in the dollar and contributed to a chain of market-rocking events that included a setback in the stock market and a sharp uptick in interest rates.
Mr. Geithner appeared to lend his support to a proposal by China’s central bank governor to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency with a basket of currencies that would be managed by the International Monetary Fund. In an appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Wednesday morning, Mr. Geithner raised eyebrows by saying that ‘we’re actually quite open to that’…
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
Thank you Rep. Shadegg. Consistency is too much
Brian Hibbert (Diary) Thursday, March 26th at 4:04PM EST (link)to ask from anyone in this administration. If they keep supporting both sides of any argument, they think we won’t hold them accountable for their actions.
Candidate for Trustee of Illinois Central College
Socialism doesn’t work. It looks nice on paper, but it’s been tried and it’s failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
Take back our party!
Check out Unified Patriots
Ditto
Alberta (Diary) Thursday, March 26th at 7:03PM EST (link)Although I do like that all the noise has been directed towards Geithner and not the guy who hired him, Curious that.
Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.
Abraham Lincoln
Cannot tell
Thomas_Hauber Thursday, March 26th at 5:17PM EST (link)I cannot tell if he is as dumb as he sounds or if he does this on purpose.
Next question to Obama by 'journalists' at his press conference
fisk2521 Thursday, March 26th at 5:47PM EST (link)I’m wondering would you categorically renounce the United States moving away from the dollar and going to a global currency as suggested this morning by China and also by Russia – MR. PRESIDENT???
“i WOULD SAY ‘YES’ IS SIMPLY NOT AN ACCEPTABLE ANSWER GIVEN THE EQUIVOCATION INDICATED.
LDavis
Sorry, this was out of context
Adjoran (Diary) Thursday, March 26th at 10:06PM EST (link)While Geithner isn’t exactly doing a boffo job, we need to understand that anyone else this Administration would nominate would be much, much worse, and that Obama’s incompetence has left 18 of the 19 top appointments at Treasury unfilled (who would want to sign on to this Titanic?), so he is without any top staff to help and is basically running the whole show himself with a few pencil-pushers to file forms.
What Geithner was actually asked is quite different from what most are reporting, and his answer is being taken out of context as well. From Bloomberg’s original report:
“Geithner was asked at a Council on Foreign Relations event in New York yesterday about People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan’s call for a new international reserve currency. He said while he had not read Zhou’s proposal, he understood it as a plan “designed to increase the use of the IMF’s special drawing rights. And we’re actually quite open to that.” ”
It seems he was saying we are “open” to making IMF intervention easier in the worldwide crisis, not the other part of the proposal with the “basket” of currencies (a truly unworkable concept anyway, with the relative values of each to every other changing hourly).
Criticism here seems more deserved by the media which misreported the story and caused the temporary run on the dollar thereby.
I admire Rep. Shadegg very much, but he needs to work on target selection a bit more before we turn him loose with live ammo, mmmkay?