SALON

Tuesday, Jan 26, 2010 6:51 PM UTC

Bloomberg goes too far on Geithner

Without any evidence, the news service reports that a Goldman Sachs job awaits the Treasury secretary

By

Topics: Timothy Geithner, How the World Works, Valentines Day, Goldman Sachs, Bolivia,

It is probably safe to say that as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner prepares for Wednesday’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on AIG, his stock has never been lower.

But that’s still no excuse for some really shoddy journalism from Bloomberg News, in the form of a column by regular commentator Caroline Baum, “Goldman Parachute Awaits Geithner to Ease Fall.”

You might be excused for imagining that a story with such a title would have some evidence to support its inflammatory report. Caroline Baum is an opinion columnist, which can cover an awful lot of ground, but still, that headline seems to contain a pretty straightforward factual assertion, does it not? A nice big fat pile of money is supposedly waiting for Geithner at Goldman, once his public service career is over. But I’ve read the column three times, and Baum cites absolutely nothing to back up the accusation. We can’t just blame an overzealous headline writer, either, because here is Baum’s last paragraph:

Axing Geithner might be good for president and Treasury secretary alike. Obama would be seen as an ally of the people. Geithner would be free to claim his just reward: that plum offer from Goldman Sachs. The circle would be squared. Obama would have his man on the inside.

That plum offer? What plum offer? That closing paragraph is the first time in the entire column that any mention of potential Geithner Goldman employment is even mentioned. It’s complete speculation.

Unlike previous Treasury secretaries who arrived in Washington fresh from running Goldman as CEO, Tim Geithner has never worked for the private sector. But the revolving door between Goldman and the Treasury department is well documented, so it is certainly not inconceivable to think of Geithner and Goldman together — or at least during any previous administration it wouldn’t have been too hard to imagine it. But times are a little bit different now. Goldman has never been as widely reviled as it is now. Given the current widespread hostility directed at Goldman from left and right, such a move would be a dramatic in-your-face to the American public that doesn’t seem to jibe with what we do know about Geithner. And the idea that it would be in any way advantageous to Obama to have a “man on the inside” is also ludicrous. Obama’s Wall Street public relations problem would only get worse if a fired Geithner immediately popped up at Goldman.

Everyone who publishes on the Web is guilty of devising headlines that push the provocative envelope, but in this case Bloomberg has really gone too far. Why trust another headline from the news service ever again?

Andrew Leonard

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21. More Andrew Leonard.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 16 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations