Posted by
Always To The Right on Friday, January 30, 2009 2:25:06 PM
The most humiliating aspect of Timothy Geithner’s first embarrassing
display of incompetence as Treasury Secretary isn’t the fact that he
almost touched off an international incident and a trade war with a
major, if troublesome, US partner. It’s that Joe Biden had to clean up after him. Geithner shot off his mouth even before taking the oath of office, and the Obama administration had to hit full reverse:
The Obama administration backed off Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner’s statement last week that China is “manipulating” its
currency.
In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden said
the administration has made “no judgment” on whether the Chinese have
manipulated their currency, an accusation that would have international
legal ramifications. …
Geithner said in a written statement as part of his Senate hearing
that the Obama administration “believes that China is manipulating its
currency.”
Many people believe China manipulates their currency. I’m sure Geithner believes it. Heck, I
believe it. But if Geithner and Obama make that the official US
position, it will trigger a major complaint in the WTO, which could
lead to significant trade sanctions against China, and a trade war at
the worst possible time.
Maybe Geithner thought that the Obama administration figured this
would be a good time to touch off a trade war — right in the middle of
a serious and possibly severe global recession. He might have good reason to think that,
but as it turns out, Geithner apparently didn’t know what the official
position of the Obama administration was or what his statement meant as
a member of Obama’s cabinet. He gave bad information to Congress and
misrepresented the United States.