Geithner Discusses Policies, Dollar's Strength In NYC

Photograph of Treasury Secretary Geithner at the Council on Foreign Relations by Mark Lennihan/AP

A new "resolution authority" would be funded through the FDIC (though not from the Depositer's Insurance Fund—perhaps another fee); Geithner said, "Our plan will give the government the tools to limit the risk-taking at firms that could set off cascading damage." Dealbook says that if Congress passes the measure, "it would represent one of the biggest permanent expansions of federal regulatory power in decades."

Another topic was the dollar: Geithner said, "The dollar remains the world's dominant reserve currency. I think that's likely to continue for a long period of time... as a country we will do what is necessary to make sure we are sustaining confidence [in our financial markets and economy, and that will support the dollar]." Clusterstock was unimpressed, "Rather than a statement of economic policy, it's more like a patriotism litmus test... But seriously, when the government tells us that our biggest worry is falling prices, what does that mean? They don't want the dollar to be strong, they want the dollar to be weak. That's why Ben Bernanke is printing up $1 trillion more of it. When Geithner complains that China is manipulating currency, his complaint is that they're making the dollar too strong." (The dollar has been see-sawing lately.)