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Loading... Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises (edition 2014)| 363 | 19 | 70,698 | 
(3.58) | 3 | Biography & Autobiography.
Business.
Politics.
Nonfiction.
HTML: New York Times Bestseller
Washington Post Bestseller
Los Angeles Times Bestseller
Stress Test is the story of Tim Geithnerâ??s education in financial crises.
As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then as President Barack Obamaâ??s secretary of the Treasury, Timothy F. Geithner helped the United States navigate the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, from boom to bust to rescue to recovery. In a candid, riveting, and historically illuminating memoir, he takes readers behind the scenes of the crisis, explaining the hard choices and politically unpalatable decisions he made to repair a broken financial system and prevent the collapse of the Main Street economy. This is the inside story of how a small group of policy makersâ??in a thick fog of uncertainty, with unimaginably high stakesâ??helped avoid a second depression but lost the American people doing it. Stress Test is also a valuable guide to how governments can better manage financial crises, because this one wonâ??t be the last.
Stress Test reveals a side of Secretary Geithner the public has never seen, starting with his childhood as an American abroad. He recounts his early days as a young Treasury official helping to fight the international financial crises of the 1990s, then describes what he saw, what he did, and what he missed at the New York Fed before the Wall Street boom went bust. He takes readers inside the room as the crisis began, intensified, and burned out of control, discussing the most controversial episodes of his tenures at the New York Fed and the Treasury, including the rescue of Bear Stearns; the harrowing weekend when Lehman Brothers failed; the searing crucible of the AIG rescue as well as the furor over the firmâ??s lavish bonuses; the battles inside the Obama administration over his widely criticized but ultimately successful plan to end the crisis; and the bracing fight for the most sweeping financial reforms in more than seventy years. Secretary Geithner also describes the aftershocks of the crisis, including the administrationâ??s efforts to address high unemployment, a series of brutal political battles over deficits and debt, and the drama over Europeâ??s repeated flirtations with the economic abyss.
Secretary Geithner is not a politician, but he has things to say about politicsâ??the silliness, the nastiness, the toll it took on his family. But in the end, Stress Test is a hopeful story about public service. In this revealing memoir, Tim Geithner explains how America withstood the ultimate stress test of its political… (more) |
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For the intrepid public servants at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve who worked with great skill and devotion to help guide their country through the crisis  | |
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(Introduction) On the morning of January 27, 2009, my first full day as secretary of the Treasury, I met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. I had an extraordinary childhood, but I was an ordinary kid. | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English (2)
▾Book descriptions Biography & Autobiography.
Business.
Politics.
Nonfiction.
HTML: New York Times Bestseller
Washington Post Bestseller
Los Angeles Times Bestseller
Stress Test is the story of Tim Geithnerâ??s education in financial crises.
As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then as President Barack Obamaâ??s secretary of the Treasury, Timothy F. Geithner helped the United States navigate the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, from boom to bust to rescue to recovery. In a candid, riveting, and historically illuminating memoir, he takes readers behind the scenes of the crisis, explaining the hard choices and politically unpalatable decisions he made to repair a broken financial system and prevent the collapse of the Main Street economy. This is the inside story of how a small group of policy makersâ??in a thick fog of uncertainty, with unimaginably high stakesâ??helped avoid a second depression but lost the American people doing it. Stress Test is also a valuable guide to how governments can better manage financial crises, because this one wonâ??t be the last.
Stress Test reveals a side of Secretary Geithner the public has never seen, starting with his childhood as an American abroad. He recounts his early days as a young Treasury official helping to fight the international financial crises of the 1990s, then describes what he saw, what he did, and what he missed at the New York Fed before the Wall Street boom went bust. He takes readers inside the room as the crisis began, intensified, and burned out of control, discussing the most controversial episodes of his tenures at the New York Fed and the Treasury, including the rescue of Bear Stearns; the harrowing weekend when Lehman Brothers failed; the searing crucible of the AIG rescue as well as the furor over the firmâ??s lavish bonuses; the battles inside the Obama administration over his widely criticized but ultimately successful plan to end the crisis; and the bracing fight for the most sweeping financial reforms in more than seventy years. Secretary Geithner also describes the aftershocks of the crisis, including the administrationâ??s efforts to address high unemployment, a series of brutal political battles over deficits and debt, and the drama over Europeâ??s repeated flirtations with the economic abyss.
Secretary Geithner is not a politician, but he has things to say about politicsâ??the silliness, the nastiness, the toll it took on his family. But in the end, Stress Test is a hopeful story about public service. In this revealing memoir, Tim Geithner explains how America withstood the ultimate stress test of its political ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
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Proponents of the Wall Street Bailout and the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) claim​ that saving those banks was absolutely required to prevent a full depression, with even worse consequences. Most of the money has since been re-payed, so the taxpayer burden was minor, especially when thinking that tens of millions of jobs may have been lost without that action being taken, not to mention the millions of additional homes which would have been foreclosed upon. Also, at this point in time, the economy has basically recovered, and unemployment rates have returned to pre-2008 levels.
On the other hand, critics point out that we've fixed nothing, and those big banks are bigger than ever, still make risky decisions, and remain "to big to fail", meaning without reform, we'll face this same crisis again in the future, with probable harder choices to make. It remains uncertain if the similar threats to the economy in the future have been prevented. Many people bristle at the thought of more regulations, but I didn't get the sense from Geithner's book that that Dodd-Frank reforms were adequate to prevent another similar crisis, especially as bank lobbies strive to chip away at its requirements.
But these two perspectives, and unprovable arguments, are what make thos Thanksgiving dinner discussion with your crazy uncle so interesting. Both sides can be argued well after desert and coffee have been served. Geithner, for his part, being part of the "fix", obviously has his opinion, which he shares in his book. What I liked about the book is his openness and clarity about the choices ​the ​financial advisors in ​both ​the Bush and Obama Administrations had to make. Choices were hard, outcome uncertain, and previous comparable experiences mostly irrelevant. Geithner tells his side of the story as to how and why those tough choices were made. (