Hard Times for Americans and Espeically for Him: Timothy Geithner

It takes wisdom to calm down in hard times.

The AIG bonuses ignited the fury of American populace. The total amount of the bonuses is around 165 million, which is 0.1% of the bailout for AIG. The problem is not about math but psychology. At this hard time, some people screwed up the economy and still could get the money from tax payers. Thus, most hard-working people feel relatively ripped-off. Thus such fury is undertandable.

The fury transformed into a political problem. Most people placed their blame on the Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, for failing to prevent it in advance. Timothy Geithner may be a good technocrat but not a good politician according to his poor performance over foreseeing and quenching AIG crisis. He set himself into the calling of stepping down.

To step down or not, that's a question. But that is not a simple question for Geithner alone. The American have to calm down and think what's the consequence of that. Geithner has a background at Wall Street, thus knows the know-how of the financial system. This crisis need an insider to solve it not a scholar in academia. Dealing a crisis is just like a fierce battle that change the commander in chief in the crusial time may deteriorate the situation. That is definitely not what we want.

Putting aside the emotion and focusing on the bigger picture is what's needed for the Americans right now. That's the real issue.