Reviews are in: Geithner clears the bar

By: Eamon Javers
Politico
March 23, 2009

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner – who hasn’t had many winning days in his short tenure on Pennsylvania Avenue – scored a big political victory Monday, as Wall Street traders breathed new life into his career with a stock market rally of nearly 500 points

The morning began with Geithner briefing reporters on his new bank bailout proposal, which would use $75 billion to $100 billion in taxpayer dollars, plus money from private investors, to generate $500 billion to buy so-called toxic assets from troubled banks. That amount could increase to $1 trillion over time.

For the day at least, the debate in Washington shifted from whether Geithner should keep his job to an argument over the merits of his proposal. “They have a second chance right now and it’s good that they’re seizing it,” said one Wall Street executive. “The fact that anybody would be willing to participate in this program is a real testament to Geithner.”

Here’s how the key constituencies reacted to Geithner.

(More here.)