The Meaning Of Geithner

As Obama seems to move toward more rather than less in the economic crisis, Noam Scheiber's profile of the next Treasury secretary is worth a read:

While the deliberations among Geithner, Paulson, and Bernanke remain opaque, there is a growing consensus on Wall Street and in Washington that Geithner would have been more reluctant to let Lehman go if left to his own devices. Perhaps more importantly from the perspective of Geithner's career, this is the view that holds sway in Obamaland. "I don't know anyone who doesn't think the Lehman decision was a terrible error," says one Obama confidant. "But there is some sense ... that Geithner would have handled it differently. ... That, in terms of understanding and pushing on the severity of the problem relatively early, Geithner was strong that way." This person relates a recent conversation between an associate and a Fed official, in which the latter complained, "Christ, Geithner wants to save everybody."