Tales from the Trail

U.S. lawmakers are mad and want Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to step in and call China a name – ”currency manipulator” — which may not sound like much on city streets but can be quite an insult in world financial circles.

“At a time when the U.S. economy is trying to pick itself up off the ground, China’s currency manipulation is like a boot to the throat of our recovery. This administration refuses to try and take that boot off our neck.” That’s not a Republican raging against President Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary, it’s Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York (where Wall Street happens to be located).

“Mr. Secretary, although there may be some modest disagreement about what to do, I’m increasingly coming to the view that the only person in this room who believes that China is not manipulating its currency is you,” Schumer said.

The New York senator, never one to hold back when it comes to words, let loose on Geithner at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on China’s exchange rate policies which are a source of  friction with the United States.

“What is the administration so afraid of? You know we are right. You know the United States is put at a terrible disadvantage and you refuse to act. What are you afraid of?” Schumer bellowed.

How do you buy $750 billion of toxic bank assets with only $250 billion of taxpayer money?

If you know to play U.S. budget rules like a violin.

President Barack Obama told Congress in passing this week he might need more money than lawmakers have already approved to stabilize banks and pull the economy out of the ditch. 

How much? His budget virtuoso Peter Orszag said on Thursday he could support buying up to $750 billion in bad assets but only needed to set aside $250 billion to do it.

While Hollywood strutted the red carpet at the Academy Awards, President Barack Obama hosted a black-tie dinner on Sunday for U.S. governors — who are debating whether it’s a good idea to take federal bailout money — at the White House in advance of a self-described “Fiscal Responsibility Summit” on Monday. The afternoon event is part of the push to sell Obama’s broader economic package before his speech to Congress on Tuesday and the unveiling of his first federal budget on Thursday.

Even before U.S. markets or the White House got going this week, the U.S. banking regulators issued an early morning statement, saying the U.S. government “stands firmly behind the banking system.” The statement added that a new capital assistance program to ensure banks are appropriately capitalized will start on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a notorious Washington “cold case” appears headed for resolution. The Washington Post and other media report police are seeking an arrest warrant in the death of Chandra Levy. Levy was the government intern from California whose disappearance was the hottest story of summer 2001. Her body was found in the city’s rambling Rock Creek Park.