The NYT seems to like president elect Obama’s choices for his advisers, but then again, maybe not so well. Hedge funds might not hedge, but the NYT seems to be doing a good job of it:

As treasury secretary in 2000, Mr. Summers championed the law that deregulated derivatives, the financial instruments — a k a toxic assets — that have spread the financial losses from reckless lending around the globe. He refused to heed the critics who warned of dangers to come. That law, still on the books, reinforced the false belief that markets would self-regulate. And it gave the Bush administration cover to ignore the ever-spiraling risks posed by derivatives and inadequate supervision. Mr. Summers now will advise a president who has promised to impose rational and essential regulations on chaotic financial markets. What has he learned?

At the New York Fed, Mr. Geithner has been one of the ringmasters of this year’s serial bailouts. His involvement includes the as-yet-unexplained flip-flop in September when a read-my-lips, no-new-bailouts policy allowed Lehman Brothers to go under — only to be followed less than two days later by the even costlier bailout of the American International Group and last weekend by the bailout of Citigroup. It is still unclear what Mr. Geithner and other policy makers knew…

Hank Paulson said, regarding the new Treasury Secretary: “I have the highest regard for Tim — his judgement and creativity have been critical to designing and implementing the necessary actions we’ve taken to protect and strengthen our financial system…I have great confidence in his understanding of markets, his judgement and leadership, and his ability to meet the challenges that lie ahead.” Perhaps that will be enough to tip the Times definitively against Geithner.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 8:16 pm and is filed under Democrats, General, MSM, Republicans, business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.