Obama makes the smart pick: Dow goes wild

[gmudem]

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/11/21/geithner_for_treasury_secretary/

Jim Cramer will be devastated, the Lawrence Summers-hating left will be relieved, and How the World Works is flat out delighted: NBC News and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that Barack Obama's pick for Treasury secretary will be New York Federal Reserve Bank president Timothy Geithner.

My reason is simple: Back in 2006, while most of the financial establishment was pooh-poohing the possibility that the global economy was at any risk from a systemic shock, Geithner was actively warning that unregulated derivatives posed a threat to financial market stability.

snip

As we are all too well aware now, the proliferation of mortgage-backed securities and their derivatives did indeed break the back of the global financial system. Before the storm fully broke, Geithner made heroic efforts to get Wall Street's biggest financial institutions to voluntarily come together to rein in the wild west world of credit swaps. But without the active support of the White House or a succession of Bush administration Treasury secretaries, he was just one man attempting to bring order to an entire territory of outlaws.

Now he gets a chance to be the top sheriff, with the full backing of an administration determined to find a new balance between regulatory supervision and market freedom. It's a smart pick.
--

This pick is a sign that Obama is interested in smart people who want to solve problems.

[Phredicles]

1. "Obama is interested in smart people who want to solve problems."

Can't be repeated often enough. This is a big reason why so many of us admire the man.

[gmudem]

2. Absolutely.

All these warnings about how awful his cabinet choices are remind me of the warnings about how Obama was running a bad, losing campaign. I'm inclined to go with Obama on his choices.

[Lilyeye]

3. I remember them too. Not just from here, but from other boards.

That is why I want to give him a chance to be sworn in and see how he governs before I complain.

[lyonn]

4. It's shocking - Obama speaks and the market moved - UP

This is unreal. No doubt many in Market Land like this pick. Is this another stick in Bush's eye? I'm lovin' it.