It’s a Dirty Job, and Tim Geithner’s Got to Do It

Tim Fernholtz notes that the White House is pouring more political operatives into Tim Geithner’s office, rather than ditching him, as a response to perceived political failings and quotes the idea that Geithner may be “too big to fail.” But Ezra Klein observes that the administration is working hard to identify the various bank bailouts solely with Geithner and not with Obama or with other key economic policymakers like Larry Summers or Peter Orszag. Ezra concludes, “If the day ever comes, in other words, that the administration needs to radically change course, they can jettison Geithner and lay the whole thing in his lap.”

I would put this differently. I think the point is simply that what the administration believes needs to be done they also believe to be irredeemably unpopular. They think the results of bank bailouts will be a return to growth and that will be popular. But they think the method by which growth is produced—bank bailouts—is doomed to be unpopular. So the unpopular stuff gets to be called “the Geithner Plan” and Barack Obama hopes to reap the credit for its results.