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Erskine Bowles told Maria Bartiromo last night that he would not serve as the nation’s next Treasury Secretary. This apparently happened off-air, but it has been confirmed in local papers in North Carolina, Bowles’ home state:
Bowles reportedly confirmed to host Maria Bartiromo off-air that he would not serve as the next Treasury secretary, according to CNBC political reporter Eamon Javers.
Fox Business reporter Charlie Gasparino reported that Bowles would like to be given a seat at the negotiating table about the upcoming “fiscal cliff,” or the $600 billion mix of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to go into effect the first of the year.
That’s hilarious, Bowles thinks that “random private citizen” should get to sit in on the deficit reduction talks. I actually agree, but there’s no reason it should be him above any of our other 300 million citizens.
The Treasury Secretary speculation always appeared to stem from the fact that Erskine Bowles was the name of a Democrat that people in Washington knew. He didn’t really have anything to recommend him to the position. He lost several political campaigns in North Carolina, he was White House chief of staff under Clinton for about a minute, he served in a no-show job with Morgan Stanley that did not afford him anything in the way of technical knowledge about the markets, and he co-chaired a deficit commission that couldn’t get a final package to a vote and submitted its recommendations with a giant magic asterisk that just assumed health care costs would stay at a certain level. In other words, the entire Bowles-Simpson plan rests on the notion that health care costs, i.e. the entire deficit problem, will just take care of themselves.
I guess that without a co-chair mechanism so Bowles could serve with Alan Simpson again, he just didn’t want the job. Anyway, Tim Geithner will probably stay in place until any deal gets struck, so that must have taken away from the allure for Bowles.
As for who will actually replace Geithner, current chief of staff Jack Lew has the inside track. BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink, Evercore Partners Founder Roger Altman, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin and Undersecretary Lael Brainard have also been mentioned.
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About FDL News Desk
No Deal in the Lame Duck!
It’s too sunny & warm out to fritter away the afternoon worrying about this parade of mediocrities we are being offered by the Great Mentioner. If Geithner’s performance at the WSJ-sponsored talkathon this week is evidence he will back preznit’s demand for higher rates on the rich, we should demand that he stay until the new Congress is sworn in.
No Deal Until We Get Our New Congress Sworn In!
All I read was the headline and yeaaaaaaaa!!!!!!
For Sec. Treasury we need someone with Wall Street experience, e.g., Yves Smith.
The Treasury Secretary speculation always appeared to stem from the fact that Erskine Bowles was the name of a Democrat that people in Washington knew.
Oh, I’d say there’s much more to it than that, DDay.
He also happens to be the face of sticking it to the middle class and the poor, which is what all the serious people (aka Beltway gasbags like Dancin’ Dave Gregory) are salivating for.
~
Nice of him to clear the way for Jamie Dimon.
The person I fear will get the job is Peter Orszag, a tried and true Rubinite now with Wall Street experience.
Geez, we can’t even get Neil Barofsky’s name thrown into the conversation as a sop to the left? Simon Johnson? Anybody?
Obama doesn’t so much “take the base for granted” as he takes it for dead.
But still, losing Bowles is obviously of the good. Unless this means Timmy keeps his job. Or Obanka “reaches across the aisle” to Simpson…
I guess one question is who can garner the approvals needed?
Lets pick someone who has no conflict of interest with regards to Wall Street instead of no conscience with regards to main street.
Bowles, Bartiromo and Gasparino: The Trifecta of Tools.
So if Bowles doesn’t take the gig at Treasury, then Alan Simpson still has a shot at it, right?
Zing!
Only one of the Very Serious People can be considered for the treas position. How do you know who the VSP are? They are the ones that helped the banksters create the Great Recession and now want to keep making the rest of us pay for it while they get their bonuses. No one else need apply.
He really should have quit after “Tobacco Road.”
My vote is Warren Mosler. He understands banking, treasury and fed operations inside and out. But that probably disqualifies him.
I see a Kennedy Center Honors comin’ his way.
Snidely Whiplash????
It’s very seldom I get to do the Happy Snoopy Dance these days, and I know I’ll be crying in my beer again soon, but I’m gonna take a little break and celebrate this minor victory.
I was thinking DD or my 12 year old niece but Snidely is good too.
The person I fear will get the job is Peter Orszag
Copy that. He was peddling his Beltway Bullshit on CNN just this morning.
Whomever is chosen they are just a mouthpiece with no independent thought or power to change the course we are on. Double dip recession is coming from Europe to America by way of the Austerity Train.
I guess that means he wasn’t asked. I also have declined to be Angela Jolie’slover because I am just too busy right now.
Even James Baker would be an improvement over any of the likely candidates.