Why does Geithner always take calls from the big three bankers?

Posted Oct 8th 2009 2:20PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Financial Crisis

Who does our Treasury Secretary speak to most of the time? Yup. You guessed it. It's the big three bankers.

Who are they? First, we have Lloyd Blankenstein, CEO of Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE GS). Then we have Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Company (NYSE JPM) and then CEO, Vikam Pandt of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE C).

You are probably also wondering how do we know this? The Associated Press did a review of Geithner's calendar under the Freedom of Information Act.

In his first seven months on the job, Geithner made at least 80 contacts with the "big three." Not only that Geithner jumps to the phone when they call. They are the dominant players on Wall Street who can move markets and even economies.

Geithner's relationship goes back to the time when he was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Critics said that the government was too quick to bail out the bankers and was unwilling to let them suffer the consequences of their bad bets.

Simon Johnson, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: Your worldview in the middle of a crisis depends on whom you talk to and what their perspective is, and you need a broad cross section of opinions to truly understand what's happening."

By seeking information form such a small closed group, Geither risks limiting his exposure to the views of his trusted banker colleagues, Johnson added.

Tags: c, geithner, gs, inthenews, Jamie Dimon, JamieDimon, jpm, lloyd blankfein, LloydBlankfein, vikram pandit, VikramPandit

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-08-2009 @ 2:37PM

clikdawg said...

"Why does Geithner always take calls from the big three bankers?"

The question answers itself.

10-08-2009 @ 3:45PM

Donovan said...

Its called little Timmy is bought and paid for. Its commonly called lets make a deal. Seems the banks have more control and power over our Government, then the Government has over our banking and financial industry.