The Un-Paulson

Why Timothy Geithner is a strong choice for treasury secretary.

By Daniel Gross
Posted Friday, Nov. 21, 2008, at 5:25 PM ET

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On Friday afternoon, the markets shot up nearly 7 percent following the news that President-elect Obama was poised to name Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, as the next treasury secretary. Why was this leak worth several hundred billion dollars in market capitalization?

After all, our next treasury secretary won't be a guy who made a fortune on Wall Street (like Robert Rubin or Henry Paulson), or who served as CEO of a Fortune 500 company (like Paul O'Neill or John Snow), or who's been a distinguished economist (like Larry Summers), or who held high elective office (like Lloyd Bentsen). Rather, Geithner has been an extremely effective meritocratic bureaucrat for 20 years—a sort of community organizer for the financial world.