Geithner Gives PE Firms Nothing To Chew On
Last night, Barack Obama repeatedly declined to discuss the Financial Stability Plan, because he didn’t want to “preempt” this morning’s speech by Tim Geithner. Hey Mr. President, you can’t steal the thunder from someone who’s carrying a transistor radio with one battery missing. For starters, Geithner’s optics were awkward. He spoke with a nervous diction reminiscent of a high schooler who’s been asked to recite a Dickinson poem. Eyes darting all over, with a static emphasis on most every word. Then there was an aborted bow at the end, which he’s probably hoping played more like an effort to bend down to pick up papers. None of that would have mattered, of course, had Geithner provided some actual policy details worth discussing. Instead, he laid out some very broad strokes that anyone with access to the WSJ/NYT/FT/TV/AM/FM already knew.
