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Geithner's Failure

For those who remember all my posts on former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on his failed policies on helping homeowners, here are some fancy Chicago economics professors saying the same thing:

Atif Mian and Amir Sufi are convinced that the Great Recession could have been just another ordinary, lowercase recession if the federal government had acted more aggressively to help homeowners by reducing mortgage debts.

The two men — economics professors who are part of a new generation of scholars whose work relies on enormous data sets — argue in a new book, “House of Debt,” out this month, that the government misunderstood the deepest recession since the 1930s. They are particularly critical of Timothy Geithner, the former Treasury secretary, and Ben Bernanke, the former Federal Reserve chairman, for focusing on preserving the financial system without addressing what the authors regard as the underlying and more important problem of excessive household debt. They say the recovery remains painfully sluggish as a result.

Geithner really stunk.

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    Glad you found that BTD (5.00 / 2) (#5)
    by ruffian on Fri May 16, 2014 at 02:49:32 PM EST
    There is also a WaPo article I linked to in the open thread that lays out the math of how Geithner and the WH vastly underestimated the effect of those underwater mortgages.

    It was one of those things that even a little familiarity with middle class people and their spending habits made obvious to a lot of us. I don't know Geithner's roots, but Obama should have known better.

    Awe shucks (5.00 / 1) (#39)
    by Militarytracy on Sun May 18, 2014 at 04:19:19 PM EST
    Missed it.  But you watched it for me and briefed me on the highlights and I thank you :)

    Parent
    Sounds like a great title for a book (none / 0) (#24)
    by Mikado Cat on Sat May 17, 2014 at 11:56:15 PM EST
    Obama should have known better. Why, he was born to a rich privileged life and likely never worried about paying a bill or finding a job. Mortgage, whats that, didn't he get his first half million dollar house as a gift?

    Parent
    Where do you get this stuff (5.00 / 1) (#32)
    by Yman on Sun May 18, 2014 at 12:54:49 PM EST
    Why, he was born to a rich privileged life and likely never worried about paying a bill or finding a job. Mortgage, whats that, didn't he get his first half million dollar house as a gift?

    ... and aren't you bothered by posting such obvious lies that are so easily disproven?  Do you honestly believe that putting some of them in the form of a "question" is any less transparent?

    It's got to get embarrassing after awhile.

    Parent

    hah (none / 0) (#41)
    by Mikado Cat on Mon May 19, 2014 at 12:38:03 AM EST
    Maybe you are confused by believing what he said about growing up and paying those college loans etc. instead of easily available non fiction accounts.

    Parent
    "Easily available" - heh (none / 0) (#44)
    by Yman on Mon May 19, 2014 at 06:23:27 AM EST
    Yet you - as usual - post no links to this "easily available" evidence.  Please do try - your attempts at providing evidence - rare as they are - are very amusing.  Easily debunked, but very amusing nonetheless.

    Parent
    Here's how it works (none / 0) (#45)
    by Yman on Mon May 19, 2014 at 06:31:36 AM EST
    Funny Money
    Claim:   Barack Obama's education and house were paid for with money obtained from questionable sources.

        FALSE

    The Obamas' Chicago Home

    See?  It's easy and takes just a few seconds.  You should try it, occasionally.

    Parent

    Here's another (none / 0) (#46)
    by Yman on Mon May 19, 2014 at 06:38:38 AM EST
    Politifact debunked this lie years ago.

    "Did Obama know that Tony Rezko was saving him $300,000 on the purchase of his home?"

    FALSE.

    Parent

    He was not born to a rich, privileged life (none / 0) (#25)
    by ruffian on Sun May 18, 2014 at 06:04:25 AM EST
    He was born and raised middle class, at best, as was his wife.

    Parent
    Definitely upper middle class (none / 0) (#26)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun May 18, 2014 at 08:00:27 AM EST
    In Kenya

    Parent
    He may have been raised middle class (none / 0) (#27)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun May 18, 2014 at 08:17:37 AM EST
    but when he entered college everything forward was greased for him.

    Parent
    Are you getting him confused ... (5.00 / 2) (#35)
    by Yman on Sun May 18, 2014 at 03:04:34 PM EST
    ... with your boy, GW Bush?  He would be the one who was born with the silver spoon and had "everything greased for him" from that point forward.

    Parent
    I recently watched the special on (5.00 / 3) (#36)
    by Militarytracy on Sun May 18, 2014 at 03:13:28 PM EST
    Ann Richards, which was wonderful.

    What she said about daddy Bush applies to Junior too and dovetails in delightfully with Wile's speech payment inequality, "George can't help it, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

    Parent

    I have always loved that quote (5.00 / 2) (#37)
    by Zorba on Sun May 18, 2014 at 04:05:41 PM EST
    from Ann Richards.  Especially said in her Texan accent.
    Priceless!

    Parent
    The whole (none / 0) (#42)
    by Mikado Cat on Mon May 19, 2014 at 01:49:00 AM EST
    but Bush blah blah blah mantra has gotten really really old.

    Obama shot like a rocket out of the Chicago political machine, where NOTHING happens without connections.

    Parent

    You know what's even OLDER? (none / 0) (#43)
    by Yman on Mon May 19, 2014 at 06:21:09 AM EST
    Blatant wingnut LIES with not a hint of evidence to back them up.

    Your claims are laughable.  Obama was not born wealthy and his first house was not given to him.  Before you decide to start spreading lies you adopted from some winger website, you really should get your basic facts straight.

    Parent

    In Kenya (none / 0) (#29)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun May 18, 2014 at 12:31:19 PM EST
    I'm going to start adding "In Kenya" (5.00 / 1) (#30)
    by ruffian on Sun May 18, 2014 at 12:34:40 PM EST
    to my fortune cookie readings.

    Parent
    Really? (none / 0) (#33)
    by Yman on Sun May 18, 2014 at 12:56:14 PM EST
    Who did the greasing?  How?  Where is your evidence?

    More wingnut lies ...

    Parent

    You don't (5.00 / 1) (#34)
    by Ga6thDem on Sun May 18, 2014 at 02:22:36 PM EST
    know too much about these neoconfederates do you? He got everything he wanted because he was black and they believe that blacks get preferential treatment.

    Parent
    Blacks DO get preferential treatment (none / 0) (#48)
    by NYShooter on Tue May 20, 2014 at 11:00:33 AM EST
    once they become President of The United States.

    Parent
    Geithner (5.00 / 1) (#8)
    by lentinel on Fri May 16, 2014 at 03:15:39 PM EST
    really stunk.

    Yes he did.

    What was Obama thinking?

    Once again, the best and the brightest ain't so good and ain't so bright.

    Some banks need to be broken up (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by jondee on Fri May 16, 2014 at 03:29:31 PM EST
    and who has the cajones to do that?

    It's an absolute disaster-waiting-to happen to leave the economic well-being of the country in the hands of a relative handfull of bloated financial institutions who, one might add, seem to be still primarily obsessed with a beholden-mainly-to-the-shareholders paradigm.

    Parent

    At least he called D'Souza a d!ck... (5.00 / 1) (#11)
    by magster on Fri May 16, 2014 at 05:11:08 PM EST
    for outing students at their alma mater when they went to school together. So there's a shade of gray there.

    I have had (5.00 / 3) (#13)
    by Ga6thDem on Fri May 16, 2014 at 06:23:49 PM EST
    personal experience with this program and I'm telling you it is a stinking nightmare. I wish it was only Geither. It's Obama too from the fact that he picked Geither.

    I like how they bring (5.00 / 1) (#17)
    by Militarytracy on Sat May 17, 2014 at 09:52:00 AM EST
    Debt forgiveness being possible in the past, and leading us to a healthier economy.

    Securitization changed that though, and banks, instead of making money on loan interest made their money selling their loans into securitization.  There is no one to call now to work with.

    I wonder if they will specifically go after securitizing debt being a problem?

    I read in the article that they are hard on "debt".  What I saw happening via the Larry Summers crew was a worship of debt that they (insiders) could harness.  Used to be that an outsider could look at a project and harness some of the solid volatility for themselves too, and if the investment failed they took a hit.  All the volatility became institutionalized though, with only insiders having access...and when failure visited, the invisible hand had to be stayed because it was going to wipe out all the key institutions.

    Securitization Was Not The PRoblem (none / 0) (#18)
    by squeaky on Sat May 17, 2014 at 10:33:34 AM EST
    The problem was that the banks knowing gave loans that had a very high chance of going into default. They did not care because they were selling the loans as fast as they were lending them.

    Had the loans had a very high chance of being paid, there would be a much smaller pool of loans and little chance of cashing in on the volume caused by lending to a pool of sub-standard borrowers.

    At least that is how I understand it...  please correct me if I am missing something.

    Parent

    Not based on what they are talking about Squeak (5.00 / 1) (#19)
    by Militarytracy on Sat May 17, 2014 at 12:11:25 PM EST
    And securitization is a problem for Main Street and the small business owner.  I know this as a small business owner who used to have to survive tricky winters.

    Twice I worked with our bank on a loan during the winter months where I only paid the interest for say two months.  But everyone used to have this face to face service.  And if you were a good customer and a proven responsible payer of your debt such service was available.  Now if you need such a thing EFF you.  The loan is securitized and there is nobody to talk to, fees and fines are what you will experience.  It stifles growth too because nobody has that kind of constant income stream except what has been made apparent...active duty soldiers.  Even civil service can be furloughed and have uncertain bill paying futures.  This makes seeking loans for small business purposes that encourages an even stronger economy difficult, difficult to consider and even difficult to obtain.

    Securitization is what also stopped and continues to prevent home mortgage restructuring.  Securitization of debt IS a problem.

    Parent

    OK (none / 0) (#20)
    by squeaky on Sat May 17, 2014 at 01:58:09 PM EST
    I thought you were talking about the mortgage crisis and derivatives.

    Parent