"Judgement"

clipped from www.tnr.com In almost everything that Geithner has done, he has roused this populism by appearing to be a patron of Wall Street. Whatever its merits, his bailout plan offers generous subsidies to banks and private investors while protecting bank management and creditors. He clearly didn't anticipate or take seriously the uproar over compensation to the executives at bailout companies like Merrill Lynch and AIG. And he has resorted to secrecy--fuelling fears of conspiracy--in concealing AIG's payments to counter-parties. Some of his hires have also picked the scab of this populism. He chose as his chief of staff a Goldman Sachs lobbyist, who had actually lobbied against a bill to restrain executive pay. Geithner also recently hired as a key advisor Lewis Alexander, Citibank's chief economist, whose thinking seems sadly typical of Wall Street: In December 2007, he told Bloomberg News that the subprime mortgages did not pose a severe problem and that a recession was not imminent.