It appears there's a possibility we could see major changes in the very near future. On Thursday, of last week, we witnessed our U.S. Treasury Secretary being asked if he would step down. We also heard three days before that, on Monday, that Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan may succeed U.S. Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner... And, today, Wednesday, we heard that U.S. and India will forge ahead with a new economic partnership which Timothy Geithner will help formally launch early next year. Hmmm ...It really does seem to make sense. If, or when the U.S. banks become nationalized, it has been mentioned that Jamie Dimon would be well positioned to take the helm.
It also appears from Timothy Geithner's background/profile that he would be the man for the job as Economic Liaison between the U.S. and the emerging market economies ... for example, East Africa, India, Thailand, China, and Japan. (read his profile below)
links ~
President of the "JP Morgan" May Succeed U.S. Treasury Secretary
Geithner-Rep. Brady Head-to-Head (Geithner asked to step down)
US, India to forge new economic partnership ~
The United States and India will establish a new economic partnership which US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will help formally launch in India early next year, the White House said
Excerpts: Survival Manual ... Nationalizing Banks ~
"Ideally, the government would have one or more potential CEO’s “on call” as a nationalization approached. The ability to announce a strong new CEO at the same time as the nationalization would considerably alleviate fears of chaos at the nationalized bank(s) and of immediate politicization.
The strength of the CEO would go a long way towards indicating the government’s intention of being an active investor, but not the direct manager of the bank. Take the case of Jamie Dimon, the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, whose already strong reputation rose considerably over the course of the crisis. He has been open in admitting that Morgan’s relative performance was so good, not because it performed well, but because it performed less badly than its key competitors' "
Profile: Timothy Geithner
Young but with a wealth of experience in salvaging America's financial markets, Timothy Geithner was seen by many as the ideal candidate for the post of Barack Obama's Treasury secretary, in which he has now been confirmed.
As head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the 47-year-old was instrumental in shaping the Bush administration's response to the banking crisis.
He played a pivotal role in the intense negotiations which took place before Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, and also helped forge the deals involving AIG and JP Morgan.
A proponent of major reform in the financial system in order to avoid further turbulence, he is no stranger to the Treasury, where he served as under-secretary for international affairs towards the end of the Clinton administration.
Before joining the Federal Reserve of New York, he also worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
When his name surfaced as a real contender for the Treasury job on 21 November, the Dow Jones index rose by more than 6%.
But his Senate confirmation was delayed due to concerns Mr Geithner had failed to pay taxes on time some years ago.
He appeared before the Senate Finance Committee to apologise for what he called "careless mistakes" in failing to pay $34,000 (£24,500) in taxes he owed until shortly before he was nominated.
The Senate finally approved his nomination, by 60 votes to 34, on 26 January.
The supervisor
Mr Geithner (his name is pronounced Gite-ner) joined the Treasury in 1988 and worked his way up to become under-secretary, serving under Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.
After spells at the Council on Foreign Relations and the IMF, he was named president of the New York Fed in November 2003.
In this post, he served as vice-chairman, and a permanent voting member, of the US central bank's policy-setting committee.
While he had already made an impression in Washington and on Wall Street, he boosted his standing still further this year as the Fed and the Treasury fought to stave off a full financial meltdown brought on by subprime mortgage-lending.
However, some have accused him of allowing Lehman Brothers to file for bankruptcy in September.
Mr Geithner has argued that the weaknesses exposed in America's financial system must be addressed swiftly, with the Federal Reserve taking the lead in supervising US financial institutions.
"You will not have good judgments made by this central bank, this Federal Reserve, in the future unless we have the direct knowledge that comes with supervision," he said in testimony to Congress in July.
Mould-breaker
Reuters news agency notes in a profile of Timothy Geithner that he breaks the mould for recent Treasury chiefs in some senses, since he has neither worked directly on Wall Street nor headed a corporation.
But this, it points out, may be in his favour as the Obama administration is expected to seek an overhaul of the financial regulatory architecture.
As well as his negotiating skills, he has a reputation for relishing tough challenges.
Justin Rudelson, a friend from student days at Dartmouth College, told the Associated Press news agency that when he asked Timothy Geithner in June whether he was getting enough sleep, he replied:
"Justin, you have to realise, we live for this. We live for these kinds of crises."
A native of New York, Mr Geithner has an undergraduate degree in government and Asian studies from Dartmouth, and a graduate degree in international economics from Johns Hopkins University.
He has studied Japanese and Chinese, and lived in East Africa, India, Thailand, China, and Japan.
Timothy Geithner is married with two children.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7744755.stm
