Timmeh

It looks like I was a bit too optimistic about Geithner back when he was nominated, though I was hardly thrilled at the time. The Larry and Timmy team isn't doing any better than Hanky and Bennie - and Bennie is still in the mix, buying everything that vaguely resembles a security. The Big Sh*tpile™ is still just that, and it seems to be growing, somewhat like fractals do, into Eastern Europe. Other bad economic news abounds - far too much to catalog.

Anyhoo, my recommendation is still the same: nationalize pre-privatize (though I might reconsider now that Greenspan has come out in favor of it). There just is not any possible way to resolve a) buying assets at prices that keeps banks solvent and b) buying assets at prices that don't represent a huge giveaway of taxpayer money. All of the proposals so far are just the original TARP dressed up different ways.

So, I don't know if it is time for Geithner to go because I don't know if the ongoing paralysis/stupidity (take your pick) rests with him, or goes all the way to the top, or stops in the vicinity of that a**hole Emmanuel. (External pressure is a possibility, but I think that some details about the source would have leaked out by now.) But Obama needs to change course shortly, or he risks foundering his whole presidency on resolving the current crisis. That would put an end to very needed reform of the way the economy operates.