Friday, November 21, 2008

Wall Street Life Preserver

A stock market starving for reassurance bounced up 500 points late this afternoon on reports that Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, is going to be Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary.

For a look at what he will bring to the crisis, a piece by Noam Scheiber in the New Republic is a good place to start, reporting an almost picture-perfect combination of the kind of intelligence, judgment, temperament and experience for that crucial position.

Wall Street was in need of a life preserver to keep from drowning in panic, and the Administration-to-be threw out one that should buoy investors up, through the weekend at least.

So much for the theory of releasing only bad news on Friday nights.

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