NY Post Floats Dimon to Replace Geithner
Talk about unclear on the concept! The NY Post claims that “a number of policy makers” have proposed ousting Geithner and giving the position of Treasury Secretary to one of the MOTUs who was effectively Geithner’s “client” at both the NY Fed and Treasury. (h/t scribe)
Sources tell The Post that a number of policy makers have begun mentioning Dimon as a successor to Geithner, whose standing in Washington has suffered because of the country’s high unemployment rate, the weakness of the dollar, the slow pace of the recovery and the government’s mounting deficit.
Last week, Geithner faced a withering attack from some Republican members of the Joint Economic Committee, getting into a testy exchange with one congressman who at one point asked Geithner if he would step down.
Dimon, meanwhile, has achieved rock star status during the financial crisis, having navigated JPMorgan through the recession and being a go-to guy when Uncle Sam last year needed Wall Street’s help during the collapses of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual.
Furthermore, while many bank chiefs are facing heat over outsize bonuses, Dimon has repeatedly made clear he won’t write fat checks to attract or keep talent.
Now, you can never tell whether the Post is reporting news or spewing propaganda, and the fact that the Post reports only that Republicans want to get rid of Geithner and not–for example–Democrat Peter DeFazio suggests that this might be the current state of Republican spin.
Still, it is true that Obama thinks Dimon can do no wrong. And it is true that Obama’s economic policy has been totally captured by people like … Dimon.
So who knows? Maybe this is a genuine trial balloon?
It’s not just the Post. I saw some of the Talking Heads on CNBC last week floating Dimon’s name as well (I was just surfing by there and have no idea who they were as they didn’t have their clown names on).
In their view, Dimon is the only possible replacement since he is just SO smart.
And yes, they really did say that.
And there it is: only a MOTU (or a closely-leashed lackey thereof) need apply.
Criminey. As I pointed out in this diary, getting rid of Geithner is fine, but it’s a misdirected response to Barofsky’s SIGTARP report from last month. Now for the Rethugs to already be advocating a replacement who will not differ from Geithner in any way whatsoever, the plan becomes even more clear: throw the plebes a bone in the form of Geithner going under the bus (and back to GS, no doubt) and plug another identical insider into his spot. In the meantime, keep the investment bank gravy train running full speed ahead until the next economic meltdown. It’s coming, the only question is when.
Could not have written it better. Thanks Jim White.
Thanks EW and scribe.
klynn shaking her head at the thought of “more of the same.”
Geithner was not previously at Goldman Sachs, that was Paulson.
Oops. But I’ll bet they would happily take him in now.
Yep.
I’m ready for someone other than Geithner, but If and ONLY if, it’s someone really different.
Like, from a completely different economic perspective.
I suspect you’ve nailed the underlying dynamics.
Which would explain some of the unattributed ‘quotes’.
You know I’m starting to take it personally that the Village thinks we are that dumb. That they could yank out Geithner and stick in Dimon and we’ll all go back to whistling a happy tune. Why on earth would they waste their time and ours with a replacement of more of the same? Do they not know the meaning of the word change?
I’m starting to think Obama was speaking in a foreign language when he was campaigning. We thought we knew what the words meant, but in fact they meant something entirely different. Orwell could not have written the political script better.
I feel so retarded this morning. What does MOTU stand for?
Bob in AZ
Master of the Universe.
Thanks! I feel enlightened.
Bob in AZ
It’s just as well you were confused this morning, bc it prevented you from finding several typos in this until I could fix them myself.
;-p
MOTU = Masters of the Universe
Bob
I keep this link handy:
(I hope the link works. It doesn’t in preview, but you should be able to find the site)
Bob in AZ…
Don’t feel bad, I didn’t know what MOTU stood for either.
Hard to beleive that we both live in AZ – A state with two of the biggest rethuglicon dickhead wannbe MOTUs in the senate – and neither of us could put 2 + 2 together…
Hey there MesaMick! Welcome to another Zonie, from yet another Zonie. And boy howdy do you have McCain and Kyl pegged.
I’d like to add a ‘second’.
By all means, the fox guarding the hen house must go. Bring in the WOLF!
Can it get any more obvious that the banking oligarchy completely controls America?
Ask Mr. Dimon how many naked silver short position his firm holds, and how he works hand in glove with the FED to destroy the dollar while holding back the price of precious metals. Ask him what he knows about the recent story re: gold-plated tungsten bars in Fort Knox.
Bloodsucking leeches.
FWIW, the easy way to tell if the NYP is putting out pure propaganda or is presenting a real article is to read it. If the article is written in complete sentences, then it is a real article. The Post has no compunction about using sentence fragments, sniglets, factoids, whatever you call them, if the purpose of the article is to inflame the proles who make up a significant portion of its readership. Real, complete sentences, OTOH, get used to inform the junior Wall Streeters who make up another portion of the NYP readership as to what the new party line will be. (Go read Liars’ Poker to find out about the trainees preferring the Post.)
In this case, the article is both written in complete sentences and has multiple sources referenced. It needs be noted that the NYP does not adhere to the rule responsible newspapers follow, of requiring either dual sourcing or other confirmation of the facts stated in an article before running it. They are quite happy going with a single, weakly or un-corroborated source for a front page article.
So, given the NYP adhering to real jounalistic standards (for a change) this would appear to be a real trial balloon and not some goof.
The question then is who is the person floating this balloon (and building other buzz for Dimon).
Why would Dimon, if he is so smart, want the job? Ain’t for the salary boost he would get if you know what I mean….
In case any readers here don’t know about Michael Lewis’s “Liar’s Poker’, here’s a linkie.
There is a Board of Directors member for the Richmond District of the Federal Reserve. His name is Ronald Blackwell, and he is the Chief Economist for the AFL-CIO.
I think the Secretary of the Treasury needs to be someone who understands what the Federal Reserve does, is an outsider like William Woodin was in the first year of the Roosevelt administration, and has an assistant (like Stiglitz) who would be the equal of Dean Acheson. I don’t know if Blackwell fills the bill, but someone unpredictable like him and someone associated with the real economy would make more sense than Dimon.
The candidate first of all needs to be someone from somewhere other than Wall Street.
It didn’t work. http://www.acronymfinder.com
MOTU is another of the cutesy, chummy, clubby, unprofessional and unexplained (even when 1st used) abbreviations common in this blog. I wonder if Dimon has a 1st name? Maybe he’s so well-known he only needs 1 name, like Prince or Maradona.
Good golly Miss Molly, so sorry we have offended your astute sense of professionalism.
Dimon is Jamie Dimon. And yes, to the denizens here, one name is quite sufficient as are the names Obama, Geithner, Summers, etc. If you simply google “Dimon”, the top hit goes to his Wiki page.
Similarly, if you google MOTU the third link tells you that it stands for Masters of the Universe without even having to click through.
We do tend to use shorthand here to save time and effort. And for the record, we do this all the time at my real job, so it is hardly an unprofessional practice.
What Congresswoman Kaptur thinks of Jamie:
MARCY KAPTUR: Let me give you a reality from ground zero in Toledo, Ohio. Our foreclosures have gone up 94 percent. A few months ago, I met with our realtors. And I said, ‘What should I know?’ They said, ‘Well, first of all, you should know the worst companies that are doing this to us.’
MARCY KAPTUR: I said, ‘Well, give me the top one.’ They said, ‘J.P. Morgan Chase.’ I went back to Washington that night. And one of my colleagues said, ‘You want to come to dinner?’ I said, ‘Well, what is it?’ He said, ‘Well, it’s a meeting with Jamie Dimon, the head of J.P. Morgan Chase.‘ I said, ‘Wow, yes. I really do.’ So, I go to this meeting in a fancy hotel, fancy dinner, and everyone is complimenting him. I mean, it was just like a love fest.
MARCY KAPTUR: They finally got to me, and my point to ask a question. I said, ‘Well, I don’t want to speak out of turn here, Mr. Dimon.‘ I said, ‘But your company is the largest forecloser in my district. And our Realtors just said to me this morning that your people don’t return phone calls.’ I said, ‘We can’t do work outs.’ And he looked at me, he said, ‘Do you know that I talk to your Governor all the time?’ He said, ‘Our company employs 10,000 people in Ohio.’
MARCY KAPTUR: And I’m thinking, ‘What is that? A threat?’ And he said, ‘I speak to the Mayor of Columbus.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you come further north?’ I said, ‘Toledo, Cleveland, where the foreclosures are just skyrocketing.’ He said, ‘Well, we’ll have someone call you.’ And he gave me a card. And they never did. For two weeks, we tried to reach them. And finally, I was on a national news show. And I told this story. They called within ten minutes. And they said, ‘Oh, we’ll work with you. We’ll try to do some workouts in your area.’
We planned the first one after working with them for weeks and weeks and weeks. Their people never showed up. And it was a Friday. Our people had taken off work. They’d driven from all these locations to come. We kept calling J.P. Morgan Chase saying, ‘Where’s your person? Where’s your person?’ And they finally sent somebody down from Detroit by 3:00 in the afternoon. But out people had been waiting all morning and a lot of people that’s how they treat our people.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10092009/transcript4.html
‘Cause he’s got bigger balls than Timmy and can “not recall” better than any republican. Larry believes him his equal (not sure Jamie would agree), and he won’t grovel Paulson like at the feet of “the most powerful leader in the world.” Also Michael Moore is fat.
Interesting. Dimon and MorganChase ought to be a tad more sensitive. As a significant portion of their retail banking operation exists from their merger with Bank One, originally headquartered in Columbus Ohio.
Awesome comment!
Thank you.
Jeez, this story is breathtaking. Talk about POTB running the show, common people be damned. Make it a diary, please.
change for change’s sake!!
I don’t know what the purpose of the abbreviations is, but it surely isn’t clarity. Journalists striving for obfuscation, how quaint.
Of course I can find out by seeking out another source.
FWIW, IMHO, OTOH, many of the abbreviations are abbreviations for cliches. Try to use as many cliches as possible when writing, to show you have neither time for, nor interest in, originality.
FOAD
Have I told you lately that I love you? *smooch*
(consulted the google) *G*
That is a matter of contrived opinion, certainly not fact; and most readers are more interested in learning than they are petty carping. Clearly not all though….
There is an enormous difference between clarity and ignorance. EW’s writing is quite clear. Your difficulty lies in your ignorance of major political/business figures which suggests whatever journalism you prefer is inadequate. You are also ignorant of modern parlance and the tools at our disposal to convey information rapidly. You have made this very clear. Yet, you haven’t gotten around to commenting on the topic of the post which is what the comment section is for… So are you hoping Dimon replaces Geithner? Do you prefer Geithner? Or would you like to see someone else entirely at Treasury?
Falstaff
You are apparently unaware that dead tree journalism has gone the way of the dead trees it is written on and that those of us engaging in blogging are following different rules.
The first rule is that we are having a conversation.
Now, you originally raised a good point–I should have identified Dimon with his first name.
But you also broke the rules of this community, which is that you engage in a conversation, not sweeping down here with the tone and attitude of a dead tree reporter to try to lecture us, only to reveal your own ignorance about community norms.
As to your lecture about cliches? First, some of those are arguably NOT cliches. Second, you may be unaware that people speak differently when conversing than they do when lecturing in uptight language.
So while I appreciate your point about “Jamie,” I suggest that you reconsider 1) whether you know the rules about how to engage people in this day and age, and 2) whether, lacking that knowledge, you’re really in a position to lecture, particularly in a community where lecturing is far more uncouth than using cliches.
THis isn’t your cocktail party. While I appreciate your participation, I’d also appreciate it if, at the same time, you didn’t demand finger bowls and proper silver in a loud boorish voice.
Thanks.
STFU is one of my favorite community norms. :P
And a great big *smooch* for you as well!
If Dimon is seriously being considered, this is not tossing us a bone by replacing Geithner, it’s flipping us the bird. He was president of Bank One when they bought our regional bank several years ago. I guess you could say I left banking after 25 years thanks to Jamie and the MOTUs in similar roles. They destroyed banks that actually served the community and implemented a totally inane structure of horizontal integration so that no one could see the big picture to question the things they were moving into….the stuff that helped create the ‘crisis’ and destroyed pension funds and IRAs. And yet Chase came out smelling like a rose thanks to Jamie? He’s no less arrogant now than he was then, and probably a lot more arrogant. Insane idea to put him in as head of Treasury.
Why not Elizabeth Warren? She’s smarter than just about anyone in DC, and is honest and straightforward and favors (gasp!) regulation.
Oh, wait…in today’s world those may be considered disqualfications….
Nice to see you again around these parts.
Details?
This would be great spin for the GOP. In demanding change, it taps into widespread anger at Wall Street’s influence over Obama and the Treasury. It attacks Obama generally. And it suggests a change that would, in fact, cement Wall Street’s influence over national economic policy. That would further prevent our developing economic plans that take into account any interest but Wall Street’s.
If only Democrats could play politics, they might be able to counter such elegantly destructive measures and be able to mint two sides of a different coin: better policies and less conflicted appointees to implement them.
Dean Baker for SecTres!
Universal condemnation instead of constructive commentary? That sounds like one of Karl’s Klackers more than a soon-to-be out of work print reporter, whose story EW just trumped. When arguing against the message is poison for your side, shoot the messenger by attacking him or her personally. Or would that be trite, instead of accurate and pithy?
JF shd atk twtr 2, a billion dollar business. And the msm – omgd, stop it – and its attempts to be current with flashy, Minority Report-like screen magic that stands in for trite, empty reporting.
As I recall, the issue was whether the Post was clueless or engaging in GOP spin in reporting on replacing as Treasury Sec’y a wannabe master of the universe with the real thing. Comments on that would be welcome. TQ.
Geithner is the biggest tax cheat ever to be Sec. of the Treasury. Pretty amazing when you consider he over sees the IRS. He should never have been appointed. Replace him with Elmer Fudd if you wish but replace him.
Jeebuz Fucking Xmas. You just can’t make this shit up.
good luck getting Dimon approved by congress in this economic mid term melt down. Besides, why not go all out and get Lloyd in there?
Madoff has lots of time on his hands….
Yup. No problem with his security clearance either. He probably still has one.
There you go, we’re already paying for his office and he’s a household name – shoe in.
I’d like to nominate the KGB
Speaking of Timmy, On the “Morning Joe Noise Machine” earlier today, Mika (bless her clueless little dim bulb) etal were insisting that Timmy was being treated unfairly. “He’s done such a good job, etc…” I’m assuming it wasn’t a joke, though I could be wrong about that.
Buncha tards…
You know if it isn’t Elizabeth Warren or Paul Krugman or someone that truly understands what is going on, we should have all our fears confirmed that hope is for a dope.
I like Warren and Krugman, but they’re academics, not executives, aren’t they? How about someone like Joe Stiglitz, who besides being an academic, is also the former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. So he should have the necessary chops. Unfortunately, according to the wikipedia, “Stiglitz always had a poor relationship with Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.” So? Summers needs to be replaced, too.
Bob in AZ
Agree.
In case anyone comes along later, Eliot Spitzer discusses why the Fed should be audited on Ed Schultz.
Well worth the time.
OT Just had to say that I got a thank you letter from Grayson and included is a bumper sticker that says “AUDIT THE FED” – will put it on my car today.
I’ve got a henna tattoo on my forehead saying same thing.
What is WRONG with Obama? Why is he so fucking stupid on these matters?
I suspect it gets to what is meant by “doing no wrong”. In the case of public employees hired to manage our financial policy, “wrong” would mean advocating or implementing policies that would regulate Wall Street’s excesses or demand that its masters pay for their financial crimes.
Mr. Obama is revealing himself as being captured by the forces most in need of being redirected into less harmful directions. Their fantastic string of profits has been produced by way of fantastic harm to middle America and the world. As long as they keep supporting the Village, though, they seem able to act as if they were the feudal lord that owned and can dictate life in that Village.
It’s starting to look like he’s (not too much more than) a silver-tongued corporate tool, I’m afraid. And that propensity is constantly reinforced by the smoke Rahm blows up his ass all day long…
Starting?
Rahm and Obama are cool with each other. The smoke being blown circles the public’s ass.
Frying pan & fire come to mind.
Murdoch’s wet dream’s all it is.
OT “H” stands for Hubris also.
As long as the Obama administration and others too give credence to these faux experts in economics whose Hubris and ignorance drove us into this collapse it ain’t going to do anything but get worse. How long do you keep betting on a team that is 0 and trillions?
Jamie has a long history in banking and steered his company through the crisis. You couldn’t get a better choice.
I feel that until our govt addresses the basic structural problems in our financial system of too much debt, we will not have a sustainable recovery. So while the stock market can stay irrational in the shorter term, in the long run I believe it will go back to reflecting the fundamentals of our boom and bust economy. And that’s why I continue to feel that for long term investors a better portfolio allocation is in cash and gold. I just read that a junior gold mining company that I like a lot, San Gold reported a new high grade gold discovery near its Hinge project. This article also says that the company is starting to draw comparisons to Goldcorp based on the numerous excellent discoveries the company has recently made. San Gold’s stock has performed exceptionally well this year, and while I would not necessarily be a buyer right now given the recent large run up, I would definitely add on a 10-20% pullback. Over the next few years I think the gold price is headed much higher, and San Gold could be a big beneficiary of this.
Please, no penny stock jobbers wanted!
Just caught Obama on the economy. Jeeeez He sounds just like Herbert Hoover. We gonna sit around and wait for business to start hiring. This as been a big period of adjustment. Say Wha? Companies just don’t need as many workers now. But we got the best universities and workers blah, blah and that wonderful entrepreneurship. Casino anyone?
American Passport futures is my bet.
Geithner’s not going anywhere. All this is a fantasy.
If this is a “trial baloon,” I am happy to take a shot at in the hope that it fails.
After last year’s financial panic and the Paulson bailout clustefuck, there is NO major Wall Street exec who can come to the Treasury job with the full confidence of Main Street America.
If Geithner needs to be replaced, and I am not sure that he does, it needs to be someone with distance from Wall Street. A former Sen. or Cong. would be best.
Oh yeah, put a former Sen. or congressman in. Maybe we can
add some more to the debt.
How about a real economist like Krugman or Baker, who seem to have pointing out all along that this economy is going anywhere until real jobs are available to real people, not MOTU.
Krugman is too valuable to us now to waste his talents in a cabinet post.
But I could sign on to Baler very easily.
they live in the same spittoon, distance wise that is.
Those who do, do, those who can’t teach!
So I guess you sprang fully grown from your father’s brow with all the knowledge of the world available to you?
Either that, or you sat in the back of the class and threw spitballs rather than actually pay attention and learn how to think critically?
Does “Dimon” rhyme with diamond or demon? Got no tee vee, no radio, so don’t know. Thnx.
What is with all the bashing of that poster? No one likes to feel left out of the club. Not everybody can be a genius. The entire reason blogs are great is that everyone can learn things. Knowledge should be made accessible.
Leave Geithner as a figurehead and dump his underlings, it doesn’t really matter.
Larry Summers is the real problem. His ideology (his conversion to populism was all posturing) and his freezing out of guys like Volcker.
I voted for Obama to avoid that douche. And where the fuck is Stiglitz?
He was bashed because instead of asking and trying to be part of the group, club as you put it, he dropped in from nowhere – never seen him before – to act all high and mighty and belittle and denigrate those here. Stiglitz was sidelined from the start, he was never really in the Obama game, Obama used him for show; Stiglitz has written about this.
All of this has been considered a huge train wreck but to make this change insures total doom. However what many don’t know is that the big Banks have been planning for decades to collapse our economy. I learned about it back in 1996 from the family I was in for more than 26 years. The collapse was to be one of the many operations in a series of operations following 911 which was an inside job. I know this also from the family I was in.
So the economy collapse was planned and executed and now we’re going to have one of the leaders in the preplanned collapse (this was for profit and also to prep us for an upcoming White Coup) at the head of the ship. One of the final operations planned and leaned about back in the 90’s was Martial Law that was to set us up for a day they call “The Change” for a Dictatorship. “The Change” is when the Detention Camps open up and those not with them are rounded up and placed in the camps.
If you have any questions you may want to ask my ex-brother-in-law == Bruce Adreani! him and his brother-in-law Clyde O’Connor are in business togerher air distributing huge amounts of cocaine in support of the WH Coup. This is how this is funded.
Meet the family:
Mexico drug plane used for US ‘rendition’ flights: report Sep 4, 2008
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j6QonBKKMo2gw1e3ql-xUcQEZbVg
Don’t miss the CIA link as Bruce often bragged about the family being CIA Assets and never having to worry about being prosecuted even if it involved murder. And don’t miss all the bags of Cocaine as this is how the Coup is being funded.
Marty Didier
Northbrook, IL
They are trying to shut down my going-viral Spitzer-for-Treasury meme.
Oh, no. Spitzer belongs on the SEC or in the Justice Department.
AAGH – that is not an acronym. THE EVIL BASTARDS!
jamie dimon…no…no…no…no…
HuffPo originally headlined the news that Dimon might replace Geithner: “Cutting out the middle man.”