GEITHNER DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH: Does Timmy Work for Goldman Sachs?

You cannot make this stuff up. Timmy and his staff have gone into overdrive, denying that he has ever been employed by Goldman Sachs. The damage control began when NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Geithner used to work at Goldman. here.

Look, Bloomberg’s the Mayor of Wall Street, and a guy who knew his way around Wall Street before he became a politician. He ought to know which Treasury Secretaries work for Wall Street’s most powerful bank. To be more specific: Bob, Hank, and Timmy—they are the team from Government Sachs and they are at Treasury to run government in Wall Street’s interests.

Timmy and his staff are trying to carefully parse words: it all depends on what one means when one says that Timmy worked for Goldman. If you mean by work “on Goldman’s payroll”, then technically Timmy’s employment at Goldman is yet to come. It is future tense: Timmy “will work” for Goldman. He’ll take a top management position on Wall Street when and if President Obama ever wakes up to the scandal going on at Treasury.

Until then, Timmy is just carrying water for Goldman, funneling Uncle Sam’s money to the firm in the biggest wheelbarrows he can find. He’s not “working for” Goldman—just watching out for the firm’s interests—since he is not yet technically on the payroll.

Timmy has been fighting the perception that he worked for Goldman since his career in “public service” began, working in the Reagan administration. Most of his career has been in Treasury, where he worked for Treasury Secretary Rubin, and at the NYFed where he worked closely with Treasury Secretary Paulson—both of whom had been on Goldman’s payroll.

Even Rahm Emanuel’s wife remarked at a dinner party that Timmy must look forward to returning to Goldman.

Why does everyone think Timmy worked for Goldman? Because he did, and he does. Like a good CEO, he is taking his pay in deferred compensation. When he retires from “public service”, he will go to Wall Street and he will be richly rewarded for his many years of service.

Look, Timmy, the careful parsing of words just doesn’t work. Ask Bill Clinton, who famously tried this tack, after he had said in reference to Monica “there’s nothing going on between us”: