I've been watching the congressional witch hunt of Tim Geithner this morning and in some ways feel sorry for him. Of course I still think he should be fired. In Geithner's mind he did what he thought was the right thing, he sees himself as a hero. I think he believes that his actions should not be questioned, in fact they should and in fact the actions of Geithner and his buddies was not right.
Goldman Sachs is also, probably rightly so, getting clobbered in the hearings. Its almost funny to see these politicians twisting questions just to mention the AIG name.
What is the most absurd thing to watch however is this gang of congresspeople attacking, but not taking any responsibility for their own actions. Geithner should resign, of course so should each of the people questioning him today.
The financial meltdown was not due to AIG alone. As I've said before, AIG basically did the same thing that Fannie and Freddie currently do - insured mortgages.
We need to get to the bottom of things, but when the people investigating need to be investigated themselves - we get nowhere. Geithner will be the fall guy, as he should be and hopefully Bernanke will be as well - they both need to go, but so does most of Congress.
Scott Dauenhauer CFP, MSFP, AIF
