Mar 06 2009
Obama on the fly?
Geithner and Obama hitting the drawing board - Thanks to fullosseousflap over at Flickr for the photo.
Oh what crazy times we are living in.
Stocks fell on the announcement that 650,000 american jobs were lost in February. We are now closing in on double digit unemployment numbers in America. Some states passed the mark months ago.
This economic recession has placed President Barack Obama in a peculiar situation. The emphasis to act has been great. Have we ever had a president enter his first term like this?
How about Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who is trying to calm down nervous investors, structure a mortgage relief program and solve our banking crisis all without a full staff. Eighteen of Geithner’s senior positions are still vacant, virtually his entire top staff. On Thursday two more candidates to fill those positions dropped out - Annette Nazareth who would have been Geithner’s top deputy and Caroline Atkinson, who was slated to fill the undersecretary of international affairs.
“The fundamental, major problem for Tim Geithner is that there aren’t a couple of people under him who can help pick up the slack and talk to people in the markets and international folks,” said Peter Madigan, a former deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs at Treasury during the Reagan Administration, adding “The house is on fire and you’ve got one guy with the hose.”
