ANALYSIS
10
Top Wall Street Execs Have Direct Line to Geithner
Treasury chief's calendars show frequent contact with big players
(AP)
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A look at Timothy Geithner's phone calendars show the Treasury secretary has maintained close ties with Wall Street executives he has known for years. Executives at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citigroup can reach the nation's most powerful economic official at will. While there's nothing inherently wrong with keeping tabs on the market's biggest players, the calendars could offer fodder for critics who say Geithner is too close to firms he helped bail out.
In the first seven months of Geithner's tenure, his calendars reflect at least 80 contacts with Goldman's Lloyd Blankfein, JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon, and Citigroup's Richard Parsons and Vikram Pandit. (Bank of America and Morgan Stanley execs appear only six times in total.) Geithner had more contacts with Citigroup than with Barney Frank, who leads the effort to approve Geithner's overhaul. And his contacts with Blankfein alone outnumber his contacts with Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
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