Timothy Geithner, Treasury's Man With a Plan, Paved Path to Recovery
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Whether by nature or design, most cabinet-level officials are extroverts with fully realized public personas. They’re ex-bankers, ex-generals, or ex-pols. Timothy Geithner was always different, a career bureaucrat whose U.S. Secret Service name, “Fencing Master,” alludes to his skill at the inside game.
This may be why everybody misjudged him. Geithner’s debut speech as Treasury secretary on Feb. 10, 2009, was a disaster. He was supposed to soothe the markets by explaining the strategy for halting the meltdown. Instead, the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 382 points. Soon, Geithner was the subject of incessant speculation that he would be the first Obama official pushed out.