The good news is that he's competent and knows his way around (the people and the numbers). Obama seems to believe he'll do what he tells him to do. We'll all have to wait and see what that actually is.
Obama, remember, is a Democrat. Expect no revolutions.
Reading around a bit, Geithner wouldn't be my first choice. NY Fed chairmen tend to be too plugged into the financial markets, and too separated from the larger economy. But he'll probably do fine. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
This article from The New Republic has probably already been posted here somewhere, but just in case, it has some interesting things to say about the "not just highly competent" Geith vs. the "brilliant" Summers choice:
... Summers's brilliance made him simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting to work for--a whirlwind of intellectual energy fueled by an endless supply of Diet Coke. "I remember once giving him a memo that was three pages long," recalls Steve Radelet, a onetime Harvard economist who worked for both Summers and Geithner. "I'd worked on it for days and days. He read it in a minute and a half. He looked at me, saying, 'I don't agree with your argument. But, if I were making your argument, I could have made it better. Here's how.' " In Geithner, Summers recognized the perfect complement. Geithner was razor-sharp, but had an easy way about him. He was a talented softball player who seemed to glide around the diamond, and his workplace demeanor was similarly effortless. This was particularly handy in navigating the political aspects of the job--not always Summers's strong suit. <...> What Obama thinks of this is an open question. Several Obama insiders told me the senator has warm feelings toward both men. "Put it this way," says one. "They are both highly regarded. Very highly regarded. Very, very highly regarded." It's possible to see Obama's personal biases cutting either way. On the one hand, the president-elect has a well-known dislike of "drama," which could tilt the calculus toward Geithner. On the other hand, Obama has an equally strong preference for expertise, which could favor Summers. Substantively, the differences may be slight. Summers, like Geithner, would likely have preferred more robust action in the case of Lehman Brothers and a more systematic approach to the financial crisis generally. Being less politic by nature, it's possible he would have piped up publicly had he been in Geithner's position, or bent Paulson and Bernanke to his will. But it's also possible that such pressure would have backfired. Markets don't generally respond well to conflict among policymakers. If Summers ends up with the Treasury job, it's more than a little reassuring that he'd still have Geithner at the New York Fed--telling him when he's full of it. Obama's Choice
In Geithner, Summers recognized the perfect complement. Geithner was razor-sharp, but had an easy way about him. He was a talented softball player who seemed to glide around the diamond, and his workplace demeanor was similarly effortless. This was particularly handy in navigating the political aspects of the job--not always Summers's strong suit.
<...>
What Obama thinks of this is an open question. Several Obama insiders told me the senator has warm feelings toward both men. "Put it this way," says one. "They are both highly regarded. Very highly regarded. Very, very highly regarded." It's possible to see Obama's personal biases cutting either way. On the one hand, the president-elect has a well-known dislike of "drama," which could tilt the calculus toward Geithner. On the other hand, Obama has an equally strong preference for expertise, which could favor Summers.
Substantively, the differences may be slight. Summers, like Geithner, would likely have preferred more robust action in the case of Lehman Brothers and a more systematic approach to the financial crisis generally. Being less politic by nature, it's possible he would have piped up publicly had he been in Geithner's position, or bent Paulson and Bernanke to his will. But it's also possible that such pressure would have backfired. Markets don't generally respond well to conflict among policymakers. If Summers ends up with the Treasury job, it's more than a little reassuring that he'd still have Geithner at the New York Fed--telling him when he's full of it.
Obama's Choice
Summers -- again, setting aside the politically stupid things he has said (Summers is a smart guy, but he's the Joe Biden of economists) -- is a bit of a drama queen, and a drama queen is the last thing we need at the Treasury Dept right now, because he'd lend a feeling of chaos to the situation. If you think Bernanke is a drama queen for jumping to the rescue every time there's a hiccup, Summers would make Bernanke look sedated by comparison.
That would be, at best, a serious distraction from getting the agenda through Congress, and, at worst, an Epic Fail. Geithner, by all accounts I've read, is not a drama queen. As an NY Fed guy, like I said, he's too close to the financial markets for me to be fully comfortable, but, given that so much of Treasury's responsibility will involve managing the bailout package, the TreasSec needs to be someone familiar with the markets.
Of all the potential candidates -- those mentioned and those not -- I would've preferred Stiglitz above anybody else. But I know he said he didn't want to return to Washington. Geithner gets good reviews from the people I trust, so I'm satisfied. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
