Geithner attended junior high school in India and finished his high school in Bangkok
By
Bhagyashree Garekar, US Correspondent
Mr Timothy Geithner is well-regarded as a man with much practice at dousing financial fires. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
WASHINGTON: By choosing an economic team deeply experienced in tackling financial turmoil, United States President-elect Barack Obama has assured Americans and foreign investors he is ready to seize the reins next January.
In his choice of Treasury Secretary, Mr Obama has a man with as much practice at dousing financial fires as could be wished for.
Mr Timothy Geithner, as chief of the New York Federal Reserve, has been intimately involved in every rescue mission since the credit crisis began: Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, AIG and Citigroup.
While introducing him at a news conference on Monday, Mr Obama noted: 'Tim will waste no time in getting up to speed. He will start his first day on the job with a unique insight into the failures of today's markets and a clear vision of the steps we must take to revive them.'
Mr Obama passed up a brilliant economist and experienced former treasury secretary in Mr Larry Summers to hand the top job to Mr Geithner, possibly in part because he has a greater sense of personal comfort with Mr Geithner, who is of the same age and partly grew up in Asia too.
While Mr Obama spent an early part of his childhood in Indonesia, Mr Geithner went to junior high school in India and completed his high school in Bangkok. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in government and Asian studies and has studied Japanese and Chinese.
Mr Geithner has more than a student's acquaintance with Asia, too. He spent the early part of his career at the Treasury in the 1990s, helping manage economic crises in Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea, as well as in Brazil and Mexico.
And during the Asian financial crisis, he was hands-on, glued to every turn of events with not one but three pagers, reminiscent of Mr Obama's fondness for his Blackberry.
Economist Nicholas Lardy, at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, recalls: 'He was at that time at Treasury and was one of the key players. I remember meeting him during the crisis and in addition to his cellphone he had on his belt three separate pagers; apparently one dedicated number each for Rubin and Summers and a third for the masses.'
Mr Robert Rubin was then-president Bill Clinton's treasury secretary while Mr Summers was the deputy.
Overall, the members of the incoming team are widely seen as competent and sharing their boss' vision and pragmatism.
Said Mr Desmond Lachman, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute: 'Mr Obama has assembled a very high-quality team who are centrist in leaning and pragmatic in their approach. They have had considerable experience in the Clinton administration and they should be able to hit the road running.
'Larry Summers, as head of the National Economic Council, is the one person who has the intellectual firepower to grapple with the most complicated and serious US economic and financial market crisis since the Great Depression.
'He will be a good complement to Geithner who is better than Summers at presenting and selling any plan of action.'
But some have questioned the positioning of Mr Summers, often described as brash, as second fiddle to Mr Geithner, his long-time protege.
Mr J. D. Foster, part of the Treasury team in President George W. Bush's first term and now an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said: 'The position requires a certain temperament to function in a collegial fashion. He has to be seen as an honest broker and it is necessary that he does not undercut Geithner. It's quite possible he will do it naturally, but that style has not seemed to be his.'
Other analysts raised concern over Mr Geithner's lack of first-hand experience of business. His only private sector appointment was a short stint at Mr Henry Kissinger's consultancy.
'Just about everyone felt that he was the best choice,' wrote Mr Charles Payne, chief executive officer of the research firm Wall Street Strategies, in a note to clients.
'That said, I still have misgivings about the lack of any real business people in the mix. I'm talking about folk who started a business from the ground floor, dealt with uncertainty, competition, and economic life and death on a daily basis.'
