He's lying.

When Timmeh is stressed, he skips syllables. I'm going to start calling him "Tweak" instead.

to big to fail = too big to be allowed to exist
Swiming to Japan
We have seen this movie before, only it was a foreign film with sub titles
Simon Johnson is becoming one of the economists who needs to be listened to, in the company of Stiglitz, Roubini, Krugman, etc.
5 minutes well spent

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/234887/Leading-Economist-De...

The panel should be starting to get angry by now. He knew how much time he would have.

Warren - how come the banks are not receiving the same treatment as the auto makers? In particular, are the banks better managed than the auto companies?

Tim - I'm surprised Warren let him talk his way past her banks question.

Timmay: "The problems we inherited"

Is that "financial system as a whole" or "financial system as a HOLE (i.e. Black)"

Timmay Geithner . . . is just not up to the task of making the propaganda credible for the masses.

Angry Saver, I believe that remains his fatal flaw.

When Geithner speaks, does he always gesture like he's fondling something?

Or maybe "milking".

Geithner Says Most U.S. Banks Have Enough Capital (Update1)

By Rebecca Christie

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a congressional panel that the "vast majority" of U.S. banks have more capital than needed.

He also said there are signs of thawing in credit markets and some indication that confidence is beginning to return.

Am I supposed to be amused by this article?
___________________________________
Citigroup Shareholders Wonder When U.S. Ousts Board (Update1)

By Ian Katz and Bradley Keoun

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc.'s board will likely survive a shareholder vote at today's annual meeting, even after overseeing $28 billion in losses and a 77 percent stock decline last year. The U.S. government may be less forgiving.

A long haired cat?
______________
When Geithner speaks, does he always gesture like he's fondling something?

"I am the Senate!" ―Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, last leader of the Galactic Republic.

Goldman Sachs is is up $2 so all is well.

Sununu keeps talking about "OBJECTIVE" criteria for capital injections. Based on what? Mark-to-model accounting fantasies?

Objective on the way up, subjective on the way down.

Has he answered a question yet?

Sununu trying to sound tough, but he is pitching softballs big time.

Tweak is definitely cowed by Sununu. Battle of the technocrats!

"How does protecting Citi's common shareholders help the U.S. economy?" Good question ...

Agree, it is an excellent question, to bad he didnt answer it

Market is starting to realize that no one is going to actually pin him down. Prices cautiously ascend, VIX falling, breadth well into positive territory.

"Why has this Administration chosen to bankrupt America before allowing the bondholders of any of these major financial institutions to lose a single PENNY."

Because the ultimate bond *seller* is the US itself.

"Treasury past or Treasury present?"

Seems to feel his is doing better than Hank.

Those passes over the last little while are really starting to add up.

http://www.theemptyroom.com/Share/beavis.jpg

APRIL 21, 2009, 11:14 A.M. ET
Geithner Defends Bank-Lending Decline
By MEENA THIRUVENGADAM and JEFF BATER

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday defended a decline in lending by a selection of the nation's largest banks.

"In normal recessions, demand for credit falls. In recessions that are following a long period of substantial borrowing, demand for credit falls much more sharply. This is such a moment," he said in remarks prepared for an appearance in front of the Congressional Oversight Panel, one of several entities overseeing government bailout efforts.

Still, Mr. Geithner pointed to improvements in the credit markets such as a drop in credit spreads and a rise in corporate-bond issuance. Asset-backed-securities issuance also is up, he said, noting that, "Despite these improvements, the cost of credit is still very high."

Mr. Geithner in his remarks outlined steps Treasury has taken to combat the financial crisis and spoke about the need for revamped regulation of financial institutions.

Is he wearing a digital watch?

Thus, under Nuremberg Principle IV, "defense of superior orders" is not a defense for war crimes, although it might influence a sentencing authority to lessen the penalty. Nuremberg Principle IV states:

"The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."

This defense is still used often, however, reasoning that an unlawful order presents a dilemma from which there is no legal escape. One who refuses an unlawful order will still probably be jailed for refusing orders, and one who accepts one will probably be jailed for committing unlawful acts, in a Catch-22 dilemma.

.....Doesn't anyone get it? Ask Geithner ONE question at a time. Make it a YES/NO answer - then stick with an answer. Make the lying creep answer the questions - ONE at a time!.

Geithner: "I've never been in banking."

I guess the Federal Reserve BANK of New York doesn't count?

What's the point? Is Turbotax Timmay really expected to do anything other that stall?

Why does the taxpayer have to take any risk?

John Sununu (R - Goldman) just wants to give the banks money. He is "concerned" that Congress is making too much noise about executive compensation, thus "discouraging" banks from accepting the handouts.

What an ass.

Does 'banks won't need more gov't $$$' = "we're gonna let 'em crash & burn"?

I can't believe they're somehow suddenly solvent.

Anyone?

Geithner: "I've never been in banking."

Clinton: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman".

Is this guy trying to get all the buzz words in on one question... What the hell was that?

see the 1st Qtr numbers on the NY Times?

the drop in ad revenue is amazing at 29%, plus their over priced acquisition of About.com was off 11%! And to think CEO Robinson got a year end bonus
of 4.2 mil on top of her base of 1.4 mil. Will she be returning a part of that to engender an esprit de corps amongst the journalistic corps?
Doubt it.

I worked with Pinch in '85 in corporate planning on the 13th flr - hey, a nice guy but that apple fell quite far from the tree!

here's a vid mash-up on Pinch's plight loosely based on Citizen Kane which was loosely based on Hearst....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng4WDsyHoN8

(my homage to Orson Welles...)

Timmy G is the banksters inside guy working for them to maintain their power grip on America. His directive is to obfuscate the the truth and confuse the issue. He will offer no concrete answers so the banksters can continue to do their dirty work behind closed doors. Don't be fooled by their brainwashing techniques.

nades (member) wrote on Tue, 04/21/2009 - 8:37am.
I'm really interested in that watch. What type is it? Does it do anything cool? Maybe its an altimeter?

It's a special watch. Not only does it directly inject kool-aid at regular intervals it administers corrective behavior modifying voltage whenever it detects too much transparency. The watch face itself tells time but not in the regular fashion. There is a personal count down clock that gave him 6 months from Jan 20th to do something and there's a count up clock that explodes when it hits $18 trillion.

Black Star Ranch,

You forgot "CAN'T ANSWER NOW"

Hey Timmy, when you meet with the President, be sure to let him know that you and Summers are rapidly exhausting ALL of his political capital.

"thats an important question" translation, it is a question that i am not going to answer, but I will use up some time dancing around it.

Anonymous wrote on Tue, 04/21/2009 - 8:47am.
Keeping the echo chamber alive without dissonance is a useful skill in this day and age.

"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Macbeth Quote (Act V, Scene V).

That's you.

I'd say Timmeh robbed the place and the watchdog just sat there and watched him do it. Lifted his head up and growled a bit, but didn't get up.

Broward Horne wrote on Tue, 04/21/2009 - 8:52am.
I'm watching CNBC and Howard Dean is the closest thing to a free marketeer on their debate program.
How creepy is that?

The others have joined a new econo-political faction best described as "free market consequences for thee but not for me."

From DP's linked story:

With the exception of Japan, average nominal pay in 25 advanced economies has risen virtually every year for almost two decades -- even during recessions, OECD data show. By contrast, Japanese salaries have fallen in seven of the last 10 years.

Guess what we're in for?

Borocco Mama wrote on Tue, 04/21/2009 - 11:55am.
Wow, it looks like the Dow will be 280 up today, as I predicted yesterday. Rational Delusion rules the day.

And I predict it will be down 4000 points this time next year.

PLEASE DNFTT

Wall Street runs Obama just as it ran Shrub. Ho hum

I'm very much starting to believe this is true...and I'm not a little disappointed.

I do wonder if the ability of Wall Street to take down/out the entire economy with it has more than a little to do with the response of both men, and their secretaries, who have been seamless in their approach.

Who was behind Warren's appointment as TARP cop? Schumer? Dodd?

I wasted an hour listening to a panel ask direct questions, and none of them were answered.

Futility is the new Obama administration's transparency. The chumps that voted for a total unknown got exactly what they voted for - No one knows, except that he lied a lot about what he promised to deliver. Keep hoping.

"Is the 'stress test leak' posted on Turner Radio legit info?"

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/621538

Uh, wtf is up with the financials, REITs, insurance companies, and consumer discretionary??? I'm really starting to believe the casino is rigged.

Here is my review of Timmy's performance which will soon be up on Zacks.com:

This morning Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner testified before the congressional oversight panel (COP) headed by Elizabeth Warren. In general, the questions were excellent, unfortunately, the answers were not forthcoming. One excellent question was "How does protecting the common shareholders of Citigroup (C) help the economy?" There was no real answer to that question, just a dance about how it was not appropriate for him to talk about any individual financial institution. The true answer to the question is: it doesn't.

He said in response to questioning about the asymmetric risks and returns in the Public Private Investment Plan (PPIP) that if you had to sell your house immediately, but there were no mortgages available that you would not get a very good price. I think that this is fundamentally the wrong analogy to use, and it reflects a flawed assumption that underlies the PPIP program, namely that the buyers in the market are wrong. It assumes that the reason that there is no volume in the market for these "legacy assets", the new term for toxic assets is that there are no buyers, rather than that there are no sellers. This is an unproven assumption at best, although one of the better features of the PPIP is that it should help answer the question of a lack of buyers vs. a lack of sellers.

A better analogy (or at least one that is equally valid) is suppose you wanted to sell your home, but it has suffered major water damage and is now infested with termites. However you owe $500,000 on it, and no buyer is willing to pay more than $250,000 for it, and you can not afford to sell it at that price. Simply because mortgages are available at reasonable interest rates will not make buyers want to buy your house for anything like $500,000. The big banks like Bank of America (BAC) are in this situation. The termite damage is the fact that so many of these loans are going into foreclosure, and the losses per foreclosure are much higher than originally modeled. The flood is the fact that the economy has turned sour and there are lots more people who simply cant pay the mortgage now that they are out of work. If they were to sell for a price that reflects the flood and termite damage, then their equity would be wiped out and they would be insolvent.

Geithner's analogy also makes the implicit assumption that these toxic assets are like houses where they must realistically be bought on a leveraged basis. Clearly, if everyone who wanted to buy a house had to pay 100% in cash there would not be much in the way of real estate transactions. However, there is no reason to think that mortgage backed securities must be bought using lots of leverage (aka margin). They are more analogous to stocks or bonds, and most investors buy those without using margin. In deed a good part of the problem seems to be that these assets were originally bought using far too much leverage. These assets are not some obscure pink sheet company, where one could reasonably say is underpriced due to lack of information being widely known in the market. There is no particular reason for the market to be that inefficient. If the legacy assets were as deeply undervalued as the PPIP implicitly assumes, investors would gradually increase their bids. If the asset were really worth $0.80 on the dollar, why would potential investors insist on bidding only $0.30 on the dollar? Why wouldn't some other investor come along and bid $0.40 on the dollar, and get a lot of these assets and still make a killing? Why stop at $0.40? Is it really because they can't leverage up six to one to do so? Wouldn't a doubling from "true" value be enough to buy them on an unleveraged basis? The PPIP will only help out the banks if it helps drive up the bids to levels that the banks can afford to accept. To the extent that that price is above the "true" value of the assets, the government (broadly speaking, including the Fed and the FDIC who are providing the non recourse loans) will end up eating the difference. The Fed will probably deal with the loss by monetizing (turning on the printing press). The FDIC will likely come hat in hand to Congress after the fact, looking for a bailout.

Apropos all of this, Paul Farrell rants about the dominance of Wall Street over the political process in lurid pulp-fiction terms. Interesting to see this stuff in Marketwatch. Kind of shows the way the zeitgeist is trying to change -- from the bottom up, of course.

"10 reasons why Wall Street has absolute power over America's democracy"

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Even-Jack-Bauer-couldnt-stop/story.aspx?guid={BE0D1772-A628-454D-80BF-C4484CEBA7DF}

(can't make the link go live for some reason, but it'll cut and paste)

Research Brainwashing on youtube, there are thousands of videos on the subject on how "they brainwash you.

See also how "they" are poisoning you.

PROOF Poison is INTENTIONALLY sprayed in our air to make us sick! Share this video!
http://tr.youtube.com/watch?v=3P0OaWjv--U&feature=related