Tim Geithner

  • 2003-2009 - President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
  • 2009-2013 - US Secretary of the Treasury  
  • 2014-Current - president and chairman of Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm
  • New York Fed
  • Treasury
  • COP
  • FCIC
  • GOV
  • MR. BOIES: ...But -- and for cross-examination, I'm now responding to an assertion made for the very first time that there might be some problem with the AIG insurance subsidiaries.  (p1676)

2014 1008 - Starr International Company, Inc. v. The United States - Case 1:11-cv-00779-TCW - Trial Volume 8 - Geithner - 254p

  • 2010 0121 - GOV (Senate) - Nomination of Timothy F. Geithner
  • 2010 0127 - GOV (House-OGR) - The Federal Bailout AIG, Edolphus Towns (D-NY)  ---  [BonkNote] 
  • 2021 - YPFS Lessons Learned Oral History Project: An Interview with Eric Dinallo, New York State Superintendent of Insurance during 2008 Financial Crisis - 19p
    • (p17-18) - [with Tim Geithner, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York -
    • Eric Dinallo: Geithner asked about, because they're seriously considering, giving serious thought about a debtor in possession—DIP—thing for AIG.
      • He's like, "What do you think?"
      • I'm like, "It's a horrible idea."
      • He said, "Why?
    • I said, "Because while it looks possible on paper, and I get the point.,,
      • If you file for bankruptcy at the holding company level, all these subsidiaries, they're going to start ... Some states may even require by law … that the states will seize the operating companies, because the holding company filed for bankruptcy.
      • They're going to pull up the drawbridge, and go into castle mode.
      • Then you're going to have a run on insurance companies."
    • While I'm saying this, I swear to God, CNN is on. We took a break, and CNN was on.
      • They were lining up in Singapore for, I don't know why, but at AIG's insurance company in Singapore, they were lining up.
      • They were acting like a run-on-the-bank moment.
      • Probably to check on their insurance policy.
  • AIG’s problems “highlight the need for a resolution authority with the power to manage the orderly restructuring of a large, complex, non-bank financial institution that poses a threat to the stability of our financial system,” Geithner said.

2009 0324 - ThinkAdvisor - Geithner To Ask For More Powers
By Arthur D. Postal - [link] 

  • 2009 0323 - propertycasualty360.com - Geithner To Ask A U.S. Overseer For Shaky Insurers: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told a congressional committee today he will ask Congress Thursday to okay a federal receiver for "systemically important" nonbank financial firms like American International Group. - [link]
  • AIG presented exactly the same kind of risk Lehman did.
    • But, in some ways, they were greater— because AIG as an insurance company, one of the largest in the world, was providing a range of insurance products to households across the country.
  • And if AIG had defaulted, you would have seen a downgrade leading to the liquidation and failure of a set of insurance contracts that touched Americans across this country and, of course, savers around the world.
  • And the judgment made at the time by my predecessor and by the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and by myself was that we had the ability to prevent that and that was the necessary and prudent thing to do;
    • ... and in acting that way we were going to save the economy from even greater devastation than we saw in the wake of Lehman’s collapse and, ultimately, that would be more effective in containing damage at less ultimate cost to the economy and the taxpayer.

--  Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner

2009 1119 - GOV (JEC) - Financial Regulatory Reform: Protecting Taxpayers and the Economy - 61p

  • We are writing to correct a misstatement by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at the Joint Economic Committee’s November 19, 2009 hearing, titled “Financial Regulatory Reform: Protecting Taxpayers and the Economy.”
    • Secretary Geithner asserted that the reason for the federal government’s bailout of AIG was a fear that AIG might not have been able to pay claims to its insurance policyholders.
      • That flies counter to the Treasury Department’s long-held assertion that the bailout was needed to prevent financial loss to AIG’s counterparties in its credit default swap (CDS) transactions.
    • It also belies the facts. AIG’s state-regulated insurance subsidiaries were, and still are, safe and solvent.
      • Money to pay policyholders was protected from being used for other purposes, and was never at risk.
      • That is because of to state insurance regulators’ ability to “ring fence” solvent insurance entities of a group to shield them from the parent’s corporate losses or bankruptcy in order to protect consumers.
    • This change in rationale by Secretary Geithner is confusing at best, misleading at worst.

2009 1120 - NAIC (Therese Vaughan, CEO) to GOV (House - Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Chair Joint Economic Committee - 1p

  • 2008 0916 - Treasury (DOTT) - Statement by Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. on Federal Reserve Actions Surrounding AIG - [link]
    • These are challenging times for our financial markets.
    • We are working closely with the Federal Reserve, the SEC and other regulators to enhance the stability and orderliness of our financial markets and minimize the disruption to our economy.
    • I support the steps taken by the Federal Reserve tonight to assist AIG in continuing to meet its obligations, mitigate broader disruptions and at the same time protect the taxpayers.
  • [COP - Congressional Oversight Panel]
  • 2009 0421 - COP - Hearing - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner - [PDF-p, YouTube] - mp3
  • 2009 0910 - COP - Hearing - Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner - [PDF-91p, VIDEO-Youtube] - MP3
  • 2009 1210 - COP - Hearing - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner - [PDF-98p, VIDEO-Youtube] - MP3
    • p78 - Geithner - And doubts about the value of AIG life insurance products could have generated doubts about similar products provided by other life insurance companies, feeding the panic that was crippling the economy.  
    • p79 - Geithner - People do not buy insurance products from firms they do not believe have the financial capacity to make good on those commitments over the long term— firms that they do not believe will pay out a life insurance policy or compensate a business if a factory burns down.
      • Credit ratings are central to how people judge that viability.  
  • 2010 0622 - COP - Hearing - Geithner - [PDF-83p, VIDEO-YouTube] - MP3
  • 2008 0609 - Speech - FRB-NY - Reducing Systemic Risk in a Dynamic Financial System - Remarks at The Economic Club of New York, by Timothy F. Geithner - 7p