At NY Fed, Geithner Saw Risk, Didn't Act

Treasury secretary says he's done after election

(NEWSER) - Tim Geithner is pretty sure he's going to be joining the ranks of the jobless after the election: The Treasury secretary—the longest serving member of President Obama's economic team—tells Bloomberg that Obama is "not going to ask me to stay on, I’m pretty confident. I’m confident he’ll be president. But I’m also confident he’s going to have the privilege of having another secretary of the Treasury." The White House announced in August that Geithner would stay put through the election, amid Beltway rumblings that he would step down. More»

Bo Zhang accused of pilfering Treasury software

(NEWSER) - A Chinese computer programmer has been charged with stealing software code worth $9.5 million while working at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Prosecutors say Bo Zhang, a Chinese citizen who worked for a technology firm contracted to work on code at the New York Fed, copied a software system relating to the "tracking of the billions of dollars that are electronically transferred every day in the US’ general ledger" onto a hard drive, then copied those contents onto his home computer, Bloomberg reports. More»

Geithner, Bernanke, others missed signs of the pending collapse

(NEWSER) - The Fed released transcripts from meetings in 2006 today that reveal just how badly its top officials blew it on the looming housing crisis, the New York Times reports. The industry was showing signs of distress, but the Fed's attitude boiled down to, eh, no big deal. The officials clearly did not grasp how "deeply intertwined the housing sector and financial markets had become," writes Binyamin Appelbaum. They would get the picture soon enough. Some highlights:

• Timothy Geithner (then with the New York Fed): “We think the fundamentals of the expansion going forward still look good," he said in December 2006. A few months earlier: “We just don’t see troubling signs yet of collateral damage, and we are not expecting much."

Or else face public action

(NEWSER) - Federal regulators have warned Bank of America’s board that the bank will face a public enforcement action if it doesn’t take steps to fix its corporate governance, risk management, and liquidity, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The bank has been operating under a confidential memorandum of understanding directing it to fix those things since May 2009, but in recent months regulators have warned the bank that if it doesn’t shape up, that informal agreement will become a formal, public order. More»

Will likely stay on through fall 2012

(NEWSER) - One piece of economic upheaval that won't hit the fan this weekend: A vacancy at the Treasury Department. After much gnashing of teeth, Tim Geithner has informed President Obama that he will stay on as secretary at least through next fall, reports the Wall Street Journal. Geithner had wanted to resign in order to live in New York with his family, but administration officials pressured him to stay. He now "looks forward to the important work ahead on the challenges facing our great country," according to a statement. More»