Most of us have had the experience at one point or another in our lives of getting stuck in a conversation with someone who is irrational and full of conspiracy theories. If you are particularly unfortunate, that person is a member of your family, your boss, a judge, or otherwise someone you can’t afford to just blow off. But pity poor Tim Geithner as it dawns on him that he has to answer questions from such a person – in this case, Congresswoman Maxine Waters – under oath, on camera, knowing that she is a powerful political ally of his boss (Geithner is not the first to have this experience). Geithner’s facial expressions in this video are just priceless:

I could take a pretty good guess as to why Goldman Sachs in particular is the subject of Waters’ conspiracy theories about the secret power of financiers, and I’m guessing it’s not because of Henry Paulson. Of course, Waters may just be assuming everyone else does business with bank regulators the way she does.