Australian PM: Geithner Screwed Up Asia in 97-98 Crisis

Bizblogger ^ | 03/07/2009 | Richie Rich

[RichieRich1]

Tim Geithner played the key role in his position at the IMF during the Asian crisis of 1997-98. Paul Keating, then Australia's Prime Minister, recently said that Geithner's "solution" to the crisis was dead wrong and devastated many Asian economies, in particular Indonesia.

"Tim Geithner was the Treasury line officer who wrote the IMF [International Monetary Fund] program for Indonesia in 1997-98, which was to apply current account solutions to a capital account crisis."

In other words, Geithner fundamentally misdiagnosed the problem. And his misdiagnosis led to a dreadfully wrong prescription...

[Kansas58]

[library user]

Well, you do know that 0 hand-picked Geithner to HURT the US economy, right?

[April Lexington]

Would have been nice if Paul had opened his mouth DURING confirmation hearings. Thanks, Paul this information is irrelevant at the moment.

[April Lexington]

Some think breathtaking ineptness, others (like me) think its a plot...

[AuntB]

BTT!

[ducdriver]

It appears that every action of His Zeroness is calculated to harm our economy. It is becoming obvious that it is his intent to destroy.

[mylife]

Hey, I thought “wonderboy” was the brightest person in the room?

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

“In declining states the leadership intuitively choses the most harmful course of action”- A Great Historian 1888

[skeeter]

Wasn’t Soros deeply involved in that fiasco as well?

[Diogenesis]

[WellyP]

Yes, Soros was directly involved!

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/guest/2004/mi_1021.shtml

“...Soros, the Hungarian born billionaire, was responsible for the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 and was dubbed the “man who broke the bank of England” in 1992. Further controversial business deals, it was ruled in 2002 that Soros was involved in insider trading during a French bank takeover bid in 1988. While admitting no wrongdoing, Soros was fined $2,000,000 for his part...”

[WellyP]

Is there a Geithner-Soros-Madof connection?

[Kansas58]

These cartoons are great. I have been posting a few, one at a time, in hopes they will make the rounds.
But, you beat me to the punch and posted them all at once!

[AlmaKing]

The last two are the best yet.

[grimalkin]

Worse, Keating argued, Geithner's misjudgment had done terminal damage to the credibility of the IMF, with seismic geoeconomic consequences: "The IMF is the gun that can't shoot straight. They've been making a mess of things for the last 20-odd years, and the greatest mess they made was in east Asia in 1997-98, so much so that no east Asian state will put its head in the IMF noose."

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