Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSyst

Washington Post, November 5, 2007.

61 “I’m not the right choice”: Jo Becker and Gretchen Morgenson, “Member and Overseer of Finance Club,” New York Times, April 27, 2009.

61 making $398,200 a year: Geithner’s salary in 2008 has been reported as being $411,200, but this figure also includes the first two weeks of 2009. Scott Lanman, “Geithner Nomination Takes Top Fed Wall Street Liaison,” Bloomberg News, November 24, 2008; Robert Schmidt, “Geithner Takes Salary Cut to Run Treasury, Gets Fed Severance,” Bloomberg News, January 27, 2008.

61 his monthly $80 haircut: Joseph Berger, “Suddenly, There’s a Celebrity Next Door,” New York Times, January 2, 2009.

62 punctuating his sentences with “fuck”: “A Reassuring Figure for Treasur y,” The Economist, November 22, 2008.

62 “He’s twelve years old!”: Robert Rubin recalled Pete Peterson telling him this after meeting Timothy Geithner. Peterson, when later asked about the comment, only remembered saying that Geithner looked young. Greg Ip, “Geithner’s Balancing Act—The Fed’s Go-to Man for Financial Crises Takes on Hedge Funds,” Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2007.

62 summoning the chief executives: Lowenstein, When Genius Failed, 216; Victoria Thieberger, “Fed’s McDonough a Cool Head in Financial Storms,” Reuters, January 16, 2003.

63 Geithner’s beginnings: Gary Weiss, “The Man Who Saved (or Got Suckered by) Wall Street,” Conde Nast Portfolio, June 2008; Yalman Onaran and Michael McKee, “In Geithner We Trust Eludes Treasury as Market Fails to Recover,” Bloomberg News, February 25, 2009; Daniel Gross, “The Un- Paulson,” Slate, November 21, 2008.

63 published a number of incendiary stories: Peter S. Canellos, “Conservatives Sour on ‘Rebel Media,’ ” Boston Globe, April 19, 2007.

63 Geithner played conciliator: Onaran and McKee, “In Geithner We Trust,” Bloomberg News.

63 recommendation from the dean at Johns Hopkins: George Packard, then dean of Johns Hopkins, recommended Geithner to Brent Scowcroft, then vice chairman of Kissinger Associates, which led to his research job. Deepak Gopinath, “New York Fed’s Geithner Hones Skills for Wall Street,” Bloomberg Markets, April 22, 2004.

63 a very favorable impression on the former secretary of state: “He doesn’t try to walk into a room and take it over,” K issinger once said about Geithner. “He prevails with the power of his arg ument.” Candace Taylor, “Quiet NY Fed Chief Makes Loud Moves,” New York Sun, March 31, 2008.

64 “The Committee to Save the World ”: Time’s headline for its February 15, 1999, cover, which featured the faces of Treasury secretary Robert Rubin, Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, and Treasury deputy Larry Summers.

64 On Thanksgiving Day, Geithner called Summers: Jon Hilsenrath and Deborah Solomon, “Longtime Crisis Manager Pleases Wall Street, Mystifies Some Democrats,” Wall Street Journal, November 22, 2008.

65 “Tim’s controlled, consistent, with very good ground strokes”: Onaran and McKee, “In Geithner We Trust,” Bloomberg News.

65 New York Fed is the only one whose president is a permanent member: “The Federal Open Market Committee includes seven members of the Board of Governors and five Reserve Bank presidents. While the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York serves on a continuous basis, the other 11 Reserve presidents serve rotating one-year terms beginning January 1 of each year.” http://www.federalreserve.gov/FOMC/.

65 the annual salary of the New York Fed president: The Fed chairman’s salary in 2008 was $191,300. http://www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/faq/faqbog.htm.

65 “These changes appear to have made the financial system”: Geithner, from his “Remarks at the Global Association of Risk Professionals 7th Annual Risk Management Convention & Exhibition in New York City, February 28, 2006.” http://www.ny.frb.org/newsevents/speeches/2006/gei060228.html.

66 his deputy, Steel, would be there in his place: “I very much appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to represent Secretary Paulson and the U.S. Treasury Department,” Steel said on April 3, 2008. “As you know, Secretary Paulson is on a long-scheduled trip to China.” Steel’s full speech is available at http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/hp904.htm.

67 underwriting more than 40 percent of all mortgages: Bethany McLean, “Fannie Mae’s Last Stand,” Vanity Fair, February 2009; Carol D. Leonnig, “How HUD Mortgage Policy Fed the Crisis,” Washington Post, June 10, 2008.

67 “Their securities move like water”: Justin Fox, “Hank Paulson,” Time, August 11, 2008.

67 The two men had known each other since 1976: Brendan Murray and John Brinsley, “Paulson’s Surrogate Steel Sees ‘Initial’ Progress in Markets,” Bloomberg News, March 19, 2008.

67 Steel came from a modest background: Rick Rothacker, Stella M. Hopk ins, and Christina Rexrode, “Wachovia’s New CEO Is Pro in Crisis Control,” Charlotte Observer, July 13, 2008.

69 “Was this a justified rescue”: Dodd’s question as well as succeeding statements from Bernanke, Steel, and Geithner are taken directly from official Fed transcripts from the first half of the hearing. See “Panel I of a Hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee,” Federal News Service, April 3, 2008.

71 “Buying a house is not the same as buying a house on fire”: When asked about the logic behind Bear’s $2- a-share price, Dimon said: “I tell people that buying a house is not the same as buying a house on fire.” “Panel II of a Hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee,” Federal News Service, April 3, 2008.

71 cancel the office’s newspaper subscriptions to cut costs: Dimon “obsesses over spending at the granular level,” so much so that he once told a vice president, who was listing the company’s print subscriptions, “You’re a businessman; pay for your own Wall Street Journal.” See Ken Kurson, “Jamie Dimon Wants Respect,” Money, February 2002.

71 “has suddenly become the most talked about”: Eric Dash, “Rallying the House of Morgan,” New