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Reports: N.Y. Fed President to Treasury |
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By Silla Brush
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Posted: 11/21/08 04:22 PM [ET] |
President-elect Barack Obama will name Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as his Treasury secretary, according to multiple media reports.
Geithner has been a central figure in the federal government's response to the financial crisis, working closely with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Bank chairman Ben Bernanke.
As the head of the New York Fed, Geithner is the bank's main link with Wall Street and has overseen numerous special-credit facilities set up over the past year to prop up lending. Geithner has played a key role in many of the government's biggest actions, including supporting Bear Stearns and AIG and deciding not to intervene to help Lehman Bros.
The choice would tie Obama to one of the chief minds behind the contentious $700 billion bailout package approved by Congress, but would also place at Treasury a figure who is well-known and respected on Wall Street.
Geithner had long been considered a potential pick, alongside former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Geithner, 47, worked closely with Summers and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in the Clinton administration.
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