If you happened to catch George Stephanopolous' interview of Tim Geithner, you heard some interesting commentary. "Interesting", though not particularly truthful.
Quote: "The economy is absolutely slower than we thought; really, than everybody thought. And it's happening around the world. ....Confidence was very damaged by this spectacle you see in Washington of a significant number of elected officials in this country threatening default, really caused a lot of damage to the confidence." Actually, not everyone shared this rosy view of the economy.
Points to ponder: First, there is no official who threatened default more than Geithner. Tim Geithner was the individual most noted for threatening default - not once, but repeatedly. First, the deadline was was March 31st. Then it was April 5th,..then May 16th - bumped to July 8th. Finally, it was August 2nd.
In reality, consumer confidence actually peaked in March--the month of Mr. Geithner's first threat of default--and has been trending lower ever since. That leads to two possible conclusions: First, if the data does indeed correlate with the threats of default, then Mr. Geithner was creating that chart and no one else. If it does not correlate, then Geithner was either clueless...or worse.
This kind of selective memory undercuts any shred of credibility Mr. Geithner has left, and it is difficult view Mr. Geithner as being an expert on much of anything other than...being wrong. (And don't get me started on Ben Bernanke)
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