Tweet
Tim Geithner
And the circle is complete.
Tim Geithner’s first post-Treasury Secretary job will be as a “distinguished fellow” at the Council On Foreign Relations. For the uninitiated, the Council On Foreign Relations is a more or less open conspiracy to use the American government as a vessel for advancing Big Business’ interests abroad. CFR represents America’s commercial oligarchy in all its glory. And as the power has shifted within the American business community to finance capital so too has CFR come to be dominated by Wall Street’s agenda and personnel.
Geither will be working under his old pal and boss Robert Rubin who is Co-Chairman of CFR. Geithner worked for Rubin during the Clinton Administration helping to end Glass-Steagall to allow Citibank and Travels Group merge into Citigroup. Rubin, already wealthy from previously being the CEO of Goldman Sachs, left his government post to work for the newly authorized Citigroup ultimately making over $100 million.
Geithner will also be working with another old pal Maurice Greenberg who is an Honorary Vice Chairman of CFR. Greenberg was Chairman and CEO of AIG. Geithner came under fire for his handling of the AIG bailout because of the extremely favorable terms he offered. Greenberg is a major fixture at CFR with a think tank named after him – the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies.
I wonder who recommended Geithener for his new job?
Though being a fellow at CFR does not warrant a huge pay day, Geithner has found another avenue for those riches – he is writing a book.
Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will write a book focusing on his response to the financial crisis, The Associated Press has learned.
Geithner, 51, will be represented by Washington-based attorney Robert Barnett, who confirmed Wednesday that Geithner would be meeting with publishers, but otherwise declined comment. Barnett has negotiated deals for President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and many others. Clinton said recently that she hoped to write a book.
Geithner did his job well protecting the powerful from the justice of the courts and marketplace, surely he has earned his cushy job and lucrative book deal.
Photo by Treasury Department under Public Domain
18 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL News Desk
Greenberg and Rubin? Isn’t that special?
Is this the place where they put friends of the 1% out to pasture?
It’s more like a holding pen for those traveling through the revolving door. Or more accurately a nexus between Wall Street and Washington.
Many of the Neoliberal plans that make their way through Congress and Corporate boardrooms are hatched and fostered at CFR.
So he kept his job.
Is it any different now? Is it that we now know some things about how gummint and bidness work together that we didn’t over the last hundred years? Is it any worse or just a bit different and maybe more exposed in detail thanks to libloggery? (Not a comment just an actual question)
Maybe he’ll just fade away, like his predecessor:
Geithner’s book will be ghost written by Lloyd Blankfein, the de facto Treasury Secretary during Bush III’s 1st term.
Nailed it, but that’s not enough to fill a post.
“distinguished fellow?”
In whose eyes?
A good question! I’m not sure, but I think things go in cycles. It seems to me (could be wrong), that FDR did manage to have “things” reigned in for a while. With Glass-Steagle & the Regulatory Agencies actually doing most of what they were supposed to do, plus the “windfall” from WWII, Team USA got better for most citizens, esp middle & working class… but, of course, in reality the 1% took a hit. They didn’t like that.
Took some time, but we are now back to anothe Gilded Age such as we had back at the turn of the 19th to 20th C. This is crude. I’m no historian, and it’s my conjecture based on reading ‘n such. Poke around on the Internet. Things are all tied in with other countries, as well, and how Team USA continues to expand the empire.
But I’m told that others more “in the know” have been surprised at how badly things have gone & how quickly the crash ‘n burn, esp over the past 8 to 10 years. The money & power-grab is shocking, apparently, to those who are more educated than the likes of me (or so I’m told).
There’s always been fiddling & collusion & graft & corruption in any govt. We can look to our own history to see rises and falls. This is a particularly BAD time, IMO. Some state that that this, too, shall pass. I suppose so, but pass to… what? What next?? The mind boggles.
thanks for keeping us posted, DSW. i just fwded with subj: geithner reunited with mentor, rubin, at “looting hq”
i didn’t know rubin and timmy were already actively destroying our economy during clinton admin; it seems now that the termites are not even pausing when the lights turn on.
Your post was required anyway. :)
The entire Crime Syndicate, comprised of murderers and robber barons, needs to be jailed… a fate far kinder than they’ve given to the rest of us.
As for CFR being a pasture… it’s far from it. My guess is that TGs time at CFR is to write what will be his delusional memoirs. But soon enough, he’ll be back in the thick of things… metaphorically raping and pillaging us.
I want them held accountable. But alas, Holder appears poised to delay any possible accountability for at least four more years. And I find it highly unlikely that 2016 will offer us Grover Cleveland 2.0.
What boggles my mind is the Crime Syndicate’s assumption that they will be safe for life. I really detest the notion of violence, but 3 inch drones are already produced in Norway and in use in Afghanistan.
How does the notion of blowback — in the next 30 years — evade them?
Not to mention climate change, which the Crime Syndicates appears to live in the delusional fantasy that it’s either: a) really not happening, and/or b) will only affect the “little people,” but not them. Go figure.
Unsure if blow-back from Empire rapine & pillaging will come first or cataclismic climate stuff… and which will be “worse.”
Good luck to us all.
Old Timmy will show up in the BIG Corp. job in a few yrs. I’d bet on it. He just doesn’t want it to look to obvious by going right through the revolving door, like some of the others do. He even looks like a little devil or evil elf doesn’t he? Right straight from the bowels of hell.
fucking scumbag hope he contracts ALS
It’s is my guess. About the time the Baron Vladimir Harkonen ( AKA Chris Christie) becomes President the blowback will really start kicking in.
Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will write a book focusing on his response to the financial crisis, The Associated Press has learned
I can’t wait for the book tour!