This is pretty dated, but I happen to be a few news cycles behind. Such is summer. I’m going to leap to the assumption that while sleeping, the Federal administrators of the United States have still failed to reach any sort of compromise to the debt ceiling, which could cause the country to default by August 2. This is pretty old news, and I shouldn’t have to be issuing anything about the subject, but the continuing inability of our two parties to find anything to do but blame each other for our nation’s ills is becoming more than a little alarming.
“So, The Federal Government and the People’s Republic of China walk into a bar…”
One poor guy caught up in the middle of this mess is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. This incumbent was previously the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Under his watch, Mr. Geithner reduced the amount of operating capital required to operate lending institutions. This is at least somewhat important to note, because in the same breath he is the man who helped orchestrate the structured bailouts of the volatile institutions of many Wall Street firms just three years ago.
He’s undoubtedly a man of many talents, but one thing that has been apparently lacking is a clear vision of future course from our current Treasury Secretary. It would be nice to hear a concise indication of direction concerning our nation’s currently unmanageable debt obligations. Without question he has the ability to kick the problem down the road. The question currently facing our nation is whether we have the stomach to make any meaningful progress toward an active resolution of an unsustainable situation.
Again, this is over a week old, but the Wall Street Journal published Damian Paletta’s review of future candidates for the Treasury post, should Mr. Geithner leave it following some so-called resolution of our current issues. Roger Altman, Erskine Bowles, Bill Daley, Jack Law, and Janet Yellen receive brief capsules of their individual qualifications. Hopefully, communication will be a strong suit of the potential successor.