"Heckuva Job, Timmy!"

Geithner is on his way out at Treasury, as evidenced by Obama's vehement denials.

Next up: Larry Summers

Trouble At Treasury

President Obama is having difficulty filling Assistant Secretary positions at the Treasury Department. I nominate a couple of candidates here.

Maybe Obama Can Find a Cabinet Post for Bernie Madoff

The reliably evil Senator Christopher Dodd (D - Hell) is pushing a bill to let the FDIC borrow up to $500 Billion from the US Treasury. Round up the usual suspects: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair are Dodd's co-conspirators.

Let's see if I have this straight:

• In the middle of a banking collapse, in order to encourage depositors to leave their money in insolvent institutions, the Congress votes to raise the FDIC deposit insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000;
• The FDIC says it needs to borrow money from the Treasury because more banks are failing than FDIC's present assets can cover;
• The US Treasury, itself bankrupt (approx. $14 - $20 trillion in debt), loans one-half trillion dollars it doesn't have to FDIC;
• Everyone lives happily ever after.

Excuse me, but isn't this the sort of financial trickery we're sending Bernie Madoff to jail for?