Free Republic

Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller was forced by to resign today, predominantly due to the July 7, 2011 memorandum that I discovered and published last weekend in my report, IRS HAD ENEMIES LIST IN 2010 & 2012. The document is written on U.S. Treasury Department stationary and demanded senior IRS management terminate attempts to force donations to selected tax-exempt groups be fully-taxed as gifts. The IRS admitted the groups examined were conservative, such as Tea Parties. The Miller memo appeared to confirm that he knowingly lied to Congress while under oath at least twice last year about predatory audits...

Bob Woodward has yet another book coming out, and the consummate Washington insider provides us with a glimpse of what's in it. In doing so, he inadvertently confirms what so many internet pundits have been warning about -- an economic catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. In the article in the Washington Post, Woodward describes the debt-ceiling confrontation between Congress and the President. It is likely that Mr. Woodward or most other political types do not recognize the admissions contained within the article. For these people, politics is a game of winners and losers. That is where the drama and excitement is....

The White House official whom Bob Woodward charged had crosssed a line by saying he would "regret" printing his version of a set of Washington negotiations was Gene Sperling, the director of the White House Economic Council, a source familiar with the exchange told BuzzFeed Wednesday. The email from Sperling to Woodward, which Woodward read to Politico Wednesday, has transfixed Washington, with Republicans and some in the press charging that it embodies a White House lording it over a cowed press corps. Woodward, Politico reported, called the top official — identified to BuzzFeed as Sperling — to tell him that...

Video At Link

From the Fed Transcripts: MR. LACKER. If I could just follow up on that, Mr. Chairman. CHAIRMAN BERNANKE. Yes, go ahead. MR. LACKER. Vice Chairman Geithner, did you say that they are unaware of what we’re considering or what we might be doing with the discount rate? VICE CHAIRMAN GEITHNER. Yes. MR. LACKER. Vice Chairman Geithner, I spoke with Ken Lewis, President and CEO of Bank of America, this afternoon, and he said that he appreciated what Tim Geithner was arranging by way of changes in the discount facility. So my information is different from that. Oh I see. Reuters...

Yesterday we broke the news [24]of what is prima facie evidence, sourced by none other than the Federal Reserve's official August 16, 2007 conference call transcript [25], that then-NY Fed president and FOMC Vice Chairman Tim Geithner leaked material, non-public, and very much market moving information (the "Geithner Leak") to at least one banker, in this case then Bank of America CEO Ken Leiws, in advance of a formal Fed announcement - an act explicitly prohibited by virtually every capital markets law (and reading thereof). It was refreshing to see that at least several other mainstream outlets, including Reuters [26],...

Barack Obama vilifies both “Wall Street speculators “who pay themselves big bonuses when times are bad” and the greedy top Two Percenters who do not pay “their fair share” by exploiting tax loopholes. With such strongly articulated views, his nominee for Secretary of Treasury, Jack Lew, and his current Secretary of Treasury, Timothy Geithner, appear to be unlikely choices for such a sensitive cabinet position. Jack Lew collected over two million dollars for his short stint at the collapsing Citigroup. Tim Geithner, whose earnings placed him in the top two percent, conveniently forgot to pay a substantial portion of his...

It’s getting hard to keep up with all the rats abandoning ship around here. It looks like we’ll be rearranging a few of the deck chairs ahead of our historic first, second inauguration.   Here, help me move this a little more to the left Here’s what we know so far regarding the rats bailing on us: Hillary’s leaving State to “pursue other interests” i.e. making money on the lecture circuit with Bill. More than likely she’ll be replaced by lantern jawed senior statesman Jean Karré, who finds our military reminiscent of Genghis Kahn(snip) Let’s just say there is a...

President Barack Obama may choose White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew to replace Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner as soon as this week, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Well, it's bad news for Danny Glover and MoveOn, anyway. They started a grassroots movement to get the New York Times columnist an appointment to Barack Obama's Cabinet in replacement of the departing Tim Geithner. MoveOn even sent a petition request to its large e-mail list, demanding a Paul Krugman nomination: Hollywood actor and liberal activist Danny Glover is trying to send a message to President Barack Obama: “Nominate Paul Krugman for Treasury Secretary.”Obama has yet to tap anyone to fill the slot, soon to be left vacant by outgoing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. On Sunday the liberal advocacy group...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who reportedly will leave office at the end of this month, is already responsible for spending and borrowing more money than any of his predecessors as secretary of the Treasury. The U.S. Senate confirmed Geithner on Jan. 26, 2009. Between February 2009, the first full month of Geithner’s tenure, and the end of November 2012, the last full month for which federal spending records are available, the U.S. Treasury dispensed approximately $13.582319 trillion. …

Washington, D.C. – It is possible, possible, that the massive shuffling of Cabinet positions for president Obama will have a positive effect on his next four years in office. With so many people leaving the make-up of the team that led to a lot of mediocrity and divisiveness will be fundamentally altered.timothy geithner leaving obama administration Some of those changes, say Secretary of State, clearly trade one strong player for another but in other places the changeover will not be as smooth or as clearly good. There is, perhaps, no position more important in all of this than the change...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the U.S. debt limit of $16.394 trillion will be met on New Year’s Eve, in a letter to Congress on Wednesday. “I am writing to inform you that the statutory debt limit will be reached on December 31, 2012, and to notify you that the Treasury Department will shortly begin taking certain extraordinary measures authorized by law to temporarily postpone the date that the United States would otherwise default on its legal obligations,” Geithner said in the letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Geithner said “extraordinary measures” taken by the Treasury Department...

Today, Secretary Geithner sent the following letter to Congress regarding the debt limit. *** December 26, 2012 The Honorable Harry Reid Majority Leader United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 Dear Mr. Leader: I am writing to inform you that the statutory debt limit will be reached on December 31, 2012, and to notify you that the Treasury Department will shortly begin taking certain extraordinary measures authorized by law to temporarily postpone the date that the United States would otherwise default on its legal obligations. These extraordinary measures, which are explained in detail in an appendix​ to this letter, can create...

Government borrowing will hit the debt ceiling on Monday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a letter to Congress Wednesday. As a result, the Treasury Department will soon start using what it calls "extraordinary measures" to prevent government borrowing from exceeding the legal limit. Such measures include suspending the reinvestment of federal workers' retirement account contributions in short-term government bonds. On Monday, debt subject to the limit was just $95 billion below the $16.394 trillion debt ceiling. All told, the extraordinary measures can create about $200 billion of headroom under the limit -- normally about two months worth of borrowing....

A few days after divesting its stake in the firm that started it all, AIG, and at a profit at that (ignoring that the risk has merely been onboarded by the Fed whose DV01 is now $2+ billion as a result), the US Treasury continues to divest of all its bailout stake, this time proceeding to GM, where the channel stuffing firm just announced it would buyback 200MM shares from the US government at a price of $27.50. More importantly, the "Treasury said it intends to sell its other remaining 300.1 million shares through various means in an orderly fashion...

There's a new bit of creative thinking making the rounds in DC this weekend, proving yet again that not all ideas wind up being good ones. According to this line of thought, assuming no deal is reached to prevent tax rates from going up on the middle class, Timothy Geithner has certain, hidden superpowers which will save the day. If the tax rates go up, people won't need to worry about it because we just won’t withhold the extra money from their paychecks. The White House has the power to temporarily protect taxpayers from middle-class tax hikes even as upper...

Conservatives seem to be nonplussed about President Obama sending Treasury Secretary Geithner to Capitol Hill without a proposal for a grand bargain on entitlements. But why? Worrying about debt and default and entitlements is for the responsible people. Responsibility is for the people who believe in the "responsible self," the notion developed a couple of millennia ago during the Axial Age. Responsibility is for the bourgeoisie. President Obama is above all that. Liberal politics in general is above all that. Their politics is about war, not about nice comfortable entitlements. President Obama's War? He's fighting a war on "inequality." Even...

Geithner’s fiscal cliff offer might not even be able to pass Democratic SenateTreasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner did what Washingtonians call the “full Ginsburg” on Sunday. The term refers to Monica Lewinsky’s lawyer, William H. Ginsburg, who was the first to appear on all five network Sunday interview shows in one day. Mr. Geithner’s whirlwind tour revealed more of the White House’s endgame for the fiscal cliff negotiations, and it’s evident President Obama is positioning himself to the left of his own party. For the first time, Mr. Geithner revealed to Fox News’ Chris Wallace the White House determination to...

Geithner presses GOP, says no deficit deal unless tax rates rise on wealthyBy Meghashyam Mali - 12/02/12 09:50 AM ET Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner sought to raise pressure on Republicans amid “fiscal cliff” talks, insisting Sunday that any deficit deal would need to raise tax rates on the wealthiest. “There's not going to be an agreement without rates going up,” said Geithner, who appeared on all Sunday morning shows, during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.” “If they are going to force higher rates on virtually all Americans because they're unwilling to let tax rates go up on...

House Republicans said on Thursday that Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner presented the House speaker, John A. Boehner, a detailed proposal to avert the year-end fiscal crisis with $1.6 trillion in tax increases over 10 years, an immediate new round of stimulus spending, home mortgage refinancing and a permanent end to Congressional control over statutory borrowing limits. The proposal, loaded with Democratic priorities and short on detailed spending cuts, was likely to meet strong Republican resistance. In exchange for locking in the $1.6 trillion in added revenues, President Obama embraced $400 billion in savings from Medicare and other entitlements, to...

President Obama’s spokesman said he was “surprised” that Republicans laughed at a proposal from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner that would raise taxes by $1.6 trillion, increase spending, and give the president unilateral control over the debt ceiling. “I was surprised they [the Republicans] were surprised,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters today during the press gaggle when asked about the proposal Geithner made in a meeting with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “There is no reason for anybody to be surprised.” Geithner foreshadowed this proposal with comments made to Bloomberg TV last week. “It would have...

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, says he “burst into laughter” Thursday when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlined the administration proposal for averting the fiscal cliff. He wasn’t trying to embarrass Geithner, McConnell says, only responding candidly to his one-sided plan, explicit on tax increases, vague on spending cuts. Geithner’s visit to his office left McConnell discouraged about reaching a “balanced” deal on tax hikes and spending reductions designed to prevent a shock to the economy in January. “Nothing good is happening” in the negotiations, McConnell says, because of Obama’s insistence on tax rate hikes for the wealthy but unwillingness...

About Us Resources Send Tips Donate RSS CNSNews.TV On the Spot On the Scene The Schein OTJ Golden Hookah Home » News Treasury Secretary Geithner: Lift Debt Limit to Infinity By Elizabeth Harrington November 19, 2012 Subscribe to Elizabeth Harrington's posts (CNSNews.com) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Friday that Congress should stop placing legal limits on the amount of money the government can borrow and effectively lift the debt limit to infinity. On Bloomberg TV, “Political Capital” host Al Hunt asked Geithner if he believes “we ought to just eliminate the debt ceiling.” “Oh, absolutely,” Geithner said. “You do?...

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Even with the same president, the United States will have a new Treasury Secretary. Tim Geithner, the last holdover from President Obama's original economic team, has indicated he's ready to leave after four tumultuous years. With Obama's victory, Geithner is expected to resign soon, but Treasury officials are mum on the details.

You have to give Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner some credit for spin: today the Treasury announced “Further Steps to Expedite Wind Down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” The only problem is that the steps announced largely put the taxpayer at greater risk in order to protect holders of Fannie and Freddie debt. Essentially, the Treasury has amended its agreements with Fannie and Freddie so that the companies no longer have to pay a fixed dividend to the U.S. taxpayer, but instead “every dollar of profit” from the companies to the taxpayer. The problem is that the Government Sponsored Enterprises...

Matthew Boyle of the Daily Caller reports that internal emails show Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was “the driving force” behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 non-union retirees from the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company, as part of the government’s bailout plan for General Motors.  Union workers, on the other hand, “saw their pensions topped off and made whole.” This decision was supposed to be made by the independent Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which is meant to be free of political influence, so it can represent the interests of private-sector pensioners.Instead, the Daily Caller unearthed a string of emails that show...

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama, who is moving ahead with a regulation that forces observant American Catholics to act against their consciences and the teachings of their faith, will be one of the keynote speakers at an Oct. 18 white-tie fundraiser hosted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The fundraiser—the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner--will benefit the foundation, which Cardinal Dolan serves as board president. The foundation's website says it provides funding “for healthcare causes.” Al Smith, a three-term governor of New York, became the first...

A new video advertisement from conservative advocacy group Let Freedom Ring features the stories of several Delphi salaried retirees, who lost their pensions at the hand of the Secretary Tim Geithner’s Department of Treasury. “I would ask President Obama why I had no rights and he had all the rights to take my pension away and never ever look back and say not only did I take it from Mary Miller, but I took it from 20,000 other people and their families,” one Delphi salaried retiree, Mary Miller, says in the ad. “It’s made life pretty rough. I’ve really struggled...

Emails obtained by The Daily Caller show that the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, was the driving force behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company. The move, made in 2009 while the Obama administration implemented its auto bailout plan, appears to have been made solely because those retirees were not members of labor unions. The internal government emails contradict sworn testimony, in federal court and before Congress, given by several Obama administration figures. They also indicate that the administration misled lawmakers and the courts about the sequence of events surrounding...

Geithner meets with Murray amid growing anxiety over fiscal cliffBy Alexander Bolton - 08/02/12 07:44 PM ET Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met with Sen. Patty Murray Thursday amid increased fears in Washington that Congress might decide not to act to prevent the nation from going over the so-called fiscal cliff. Murray, (Wash.), the Democratic co-chair of the 2011 deficit supercommittee, recently said that Democrats would allow all of the Bush tax rates to expire and then seek to renew lower rates for the middle class, unless Republicans agree to raise taxes on the nation’s highest income earners. As Treasury secretary...

When Tim Geithner became Treasury Secretary he was appointed even though he had skipped on taxes and paid $42,702 to make up his omission. He pretended at the time that this failure to pay taxes owed for a number of years had simply been an oversight. Anyone really paying attention at the time, and applying reasonable judgment, was astonished. The Former head of the New York Fed was being placed into the control seat of the Nation’s Treasury. Not a single taxpayer in the Nation who trudges through the annual process of filing income taxes believed Geithner’s excuses on this egregious wrong...

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) released a report entitled “TROUBLED ASSET RELIEF PROGRAM: Further Actions Needed to Enhance Assessments and Transparency of Housing Programs.” The report is not a flattering portrayal of their efforts to provide transparency for TARP. I testified in the House of Representatives in 2008 on transparency for the $700 billion TARP saying that “Greater transparency about use of the TARP money can alleviate concerns among U.S. taxpayers and the investment community that the funds are being used appropriately and not being wasted.” Apparently, Secretary Geithner didn’t agree with my testimony. So, what did the GAO conclude...

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner gets very angry at the suggestion that he conduct the bank bailouts in a transparent manner, according to Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector general for the Treasury Department. “Neil, I have been the most f–king transparent secretary of the Treasury in this country’s entire f–king history!” Geithner shouted at Barofsky in 2009, the former inspector general writes in his new book Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street. Geithner’s anger stemmed from Barofsky saying, “Mr. Secretary,

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday that he acted quickly and appropriately to deal with problems in a key global interest rate once he realized the rate-setting process was flawed. Geithner, who was then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said during an interview with CNBC that he sent a memo in 2008 to British banking authorities outlining his concerns about possible manipulation of the London interbank offered rate (Libor). He also said he alerted U.S. regulators.

(snip) The LIBOR scandal is "so big I don't think people have got their minds around it," says Jim Rickards, a partner at JAC Capital Advisors and author of Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global. "This is the largest financial scandal I've seen in my career." If $500 trillion of swaps are based on LIBOR and the rate was manipulated by 10 basis points over five years, that's $2.5 trillion of fraudulent transactions -- more than the combined capital of the nation's five largest banks, Rickards explains. "Congress may have to step in to limit the damages because...

The latest development in the Libor-manipulation scandal is that the banks weren’t really fixing the price of the key interest rate in total secret — US regulators were aware of the sleazy activities at the time, and seemed to have done nothing. Which should surprise no one. I can’t tell you how much federal officials knew about the activities of Barclay’s, JPMorgan, Citigroup and the other big banks at the center of the maelstrom. In coming weeks, both Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will inevitably discuss the mess when they appear before Congress. Bernanke testifies...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is pleading with Europe to repeat the American banking experiment called TARP – Troubled Asset Relief Program. Europe already has programs in place such as LTRO. Geithner wants a huge infusion of cash into Euro banks (such as in faltering Spanish banks). Will it work? It will discourage further bank failures, but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem – government spent too much, borrowed too much and promised too many entitlements. Eurozone growth is feeble and simply giving banks more money may instill confidence in the banking system, but it does not necessarily help with more...

Tim Geithner outdoes himself this evening with three hypocritical, self-defecating-deceiving, and typically ignominious clips courtesy of his interview with Jeffrey Brown of PBS NewsHour. While we knew TurboTax was beyond him, the Treasury debacle-in-chief admits he doesn't understand how the debt limit has bubbled back up (seeing it as part of a partisan political agenda); admits that perhaps the NY Fed has a 'perception problem' with Jamie Dimon on the board; and his piece-de-resistance his cognitive dissonance erupts as he touts Obama's economic and jobs record: "look how well we are doing relative to any other major country". It seems...

Recently, Barack Obama has refrained from mentioning Dodd-Frank as one of his big accomplishments as President. That's fortunate, because had Obama used that as a campaign claim this month, the huge loss taken by JP Morgan and one-time Obama ally Jamie Dimon would have done serious damage. As it is, Politico wonders whether Obama might have a big problem convincing voters that he's done anything significant to address the underlying issues that created the 2008 financial-system collapse: The giant $2 billion trading loss at JPMorgan Chase highlights a central problem in President Barack ObamaÂ’s case for a second term: Four...

We've had some unusual Cabinet secretaries in past administrations ...but never anything quite like the present bunch. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has overseen some $5 trillion in new debt. To help pay for it, he wants the rich — the top 1% already contributes more in income taxes than does the bottom 90% — to pay more for what he calls "the privilege of being an American." Geithner, whose department oversees the IRS, should have taken his own advice: As a rich American one-percenter, he once failed to pay his own self-employment taxes, and improperly claimed his children's camp costs...

MEN OF HONOR Apparently, if you want to cheat on your wife or spurn the mother of your unborn child, cover up and easily settle your institution's criminal efforts to help Americans avoid paying their federal income taxes, or just avoid paying your own fair share, the place to be is on President Barack Obama's economic-recovery advisory board. Because that's where Robert Wolf, chief executive of UBS Group Americas, the U.S. arm of one of Switzerland's largest banks, UBS AG, sits, as do Charles E. Phillips, President of Oracle Corporation, Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management of...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is warning that if GOP lawmakers continue their push to roll back portions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, it could "critically undermine" the ability to prevent damaging future crises. In a letter sent to lawmakers Tuesday, Geithner blasted a package of measures set to be considered by the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, including a pair that would repeal or trim key pieces of the Wall Street makeover. "The act provides essential reforms that should not be weakened or repealed," he wrote to committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) and ranking member Rep. Barney Frank...

Congressional staffers owed about $10.6 million in unpaid taxes in 2010, a slight increase from the previous year and a growing slice of the roughly $1 billion owed by federal and postal workers nationwide. The figures come as Republican efforts to pass legislation allowing federal agencies to fire tax delinquent federal employees have slowed and as the White House continues to crack down on improper payments made by agencies to delinquent government contractors and federal beneficiaries. About 98,000 federal, postal and congressional employees owed $1.03 billion in unpaid taxes at the end of fiscal 2010, according to records provided by...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pushed back on Mitt Romney's statements that women made up almost all jobs lost during the Obama presidency. "It's misleading and ridiculous," Geithner said on CBS News' "Face the Nation." "It's just a political moment." On the campaign trail, Romney attempted to turn the discussion to women and the economy, blaming President Obama for hurting women's checkbooks. At campaign events, Romney repeatedly said the president's policies are waging "the real war on women," pointing to a statistic that women make up 92.3 percent of jobs lost since Mr. Obama took office. In response to questions by...

After clearing the Senate on a 74 – 22 vote on March 14, SB 1813 is now headed for a vote in the House of Representatives, where it’s expected to encounter stiffer opposition among the GOP majority.

In May 2009, four months into the Obama presidency, retail gasoline prices averaged $2.32 per gallon. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) wrote Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to express concern about the impact that the Administration’s budgeted changes in tax policy would have on the oil and gas industry. Secretary Geithner clearly laid out the Administration position in his letter of response (pdf link). That was then, this is now. In just three years’ time, retail gasoline prices are up 68%. $4.00+ gasoline prices loom as a key reelection vulnerability for the President; in response, the Administration’s rhetoric has shifted to “energy...

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner advised taxpayers to “quit complaining, taxes are what you pay for the privilege of being an American.” “You know, there are places in the world where the government can take everything you have,” Geithner observed. “The fact that you get to keep anything here ought to inspire a greater appreciation for your own government’s forbearance.” The Secretary warned those he called the “one-percenters,” that “government is the only thing preventing the other 99% from murdering you and looting your property. The protection we offer ought to be worth whatever it costs. Quibbling over the price...

"That’s the kind of balance you need," said Geithner. "Why is that the case? Because if you don't try to generate more revenues through tax reform, if you don't ask, you know, the most fortunate Americans to bear a slightly larger burden of the privilege of being an American, then you have to -- the only way to achieve fiscal sustainability is through unacceptably deep cuts in benefits for middle class seniors, or unacceptably deep cuts in national security."

"That’s the kind of balance you need," said Geithner. "Why is that the case? Because if you don't try to generate more revenues through tax reform, if you don't ask, you know, the most fortunate Americans to bear a slightly larger burden of the privilege of being an American, then you have to -- the only way to achieve fiscal sustainability is through unacceptably deep cuts in benefits for middle class seniors, or unacceptably deep cuts in national security."