Rants

Geithner Blows His Lid

Attacks regulators with "expletive-laced tirade."

Is it no more mister nice guy for Timothy Geithner? The Treasury secretary “blasted top U.S. financial regulators in an expletive-laced critique last Friday as frustration grows over the Obama administration's faltering plan to overhaul U.S. financial regulation,” according to The Wall Street Journal. According to one person at the meeting—which included Ben Bernanke, SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro, and FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Blair—the gist of Geithner’s rant was that “enough is enough.” He apparently targeted those who argued the Federal Reserve should not be given more regulatory power. According to the Journal, “Friday's roughly hourlong meeting was described as unusual, not only because of Mr. Geithner's repeated use of obscenities, but because of the aggressive posture he took with officials from federal agencies generally considered independent of the White House.”