Cheat Sheet

According to reports, Obama has picked Timothy Geithner, 47, to head up the Treasury Department at one of the most crucial times in its history. Geithner, who will replace current Secretary Hank Paulson, is the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank where he won praise for his early efforts to regulate the booming credit derivatives market, which is attributed with causing the current financial crisis. "If the brave new world of finance is daunting, the man in charge of it is not," a 2007 profile in the New York Times read. "With a boyish charm and a dry sense of humor, Mr. Geithner has taken advantage of the current calm waters of the financial markets to take an active stance, rallying Wall Street to peel apart the market of credit derivatives to try to understand its potential risks." His reputation on Wall Street is strong and the stock market rallied today after word of his appointment got out. Like several Obama picks, Geithner is a Clinton administration vet, having served in the Treasury Department under Larry Summers.