As We Predicted: Timothy Geithner Will Be Obama Treasury Secretary

Current New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner is set to be named US Treasury Secretary Monday, giving markets a much needed boost of confidence.

As we predicted earlier this month, Timothy Geithner will almost certainly become the all important Treasury Secretary in a Obama Whitehouse this January, reports say.

Despite the media focusing much of its attention on other likely candidates, it seemed very likely indeed that Tim Geithner was going to be selected for Treasury given his inside knowledge and experience with managing financial and economic crisis, and his Obama like affinity with international issues, pragmatism, age, family and general world view.

NBC news reported sources Friday afternoon New York Time that Timothy Geithner (pronounced GITE-ner) would be tapped by Obama for the position. Stocks on the NYSE soured with the news and gave a boost of confidence to an otherwise depressed financial market.

Major indices were up more than 6 percent, Reuters-Thompson reported. The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 8,000.

Via Reuters

NBC News said Obama was expected to announce Geithner and other members of his economic team on Monday to try to calm U.S. financial markets that have sunk like a stone all week before Friday's surge.

"A fantastic choice to help lead the financial markets out of the wilderness," said Chris Rupkey, economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York. He called Geithner a "crisis manager par excellence" who would hit the ground running.

If confirmed by the Senate, Geithner would be at the helm of efforts to stem the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.