BankThink

At his confirmation hearing in the Senate Finance Committee today, Timothy Geithner, the nominee for Treasury Secretary, said he used Turbo Tax to file his taxes during the time that he worked at the International Monetary Fund.

Washington will be both busy and completely shut down on Monday and Tuesday, and then it will be busy again on Wednesday. Perhaps the country will have a new Treasury Secretary by the end of the week; perhaps not. And what of the second half of the Tarp money? Answers to these questions and more...

In my 36 years at CUNA Mutual, I have been afforded the opportunity to travel around the world representing our organization in many countries. I have often stated to my co-workers in Madison that I wish they could experience what I have seen firsthand; the "people-helping-people" philosophy and practice in our movement.

While working for the Bethpage Federal Credit Union in New York in 1980 part of my duties included business and new member development. In addition to branch operations management I would traverse the nation speaking with employees of the giant aerospace concern Grumman and their affiliates.

I appreciate the story "Accounting Rulemakers Ease On Fair Value Standards To Aid Corporates (CU Journal Online, Jan. 7) about the new guidance from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). I'd like to clarify a few points.

Some other notes following a year-end clearance sale of items remaining in the Reporter's Notebook:

Housing advocates in California today got some fresh air as they decried bank bailouts and called for government aid to Main Street. Representatives of 40 community groups marched through San Francisco, stopping at the local headquarters of big banks that received federal bailout money and ending their rout at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Since the collapse of the world financial system, plenty of politicians and industry insiders have engaged energetically in the endless pursuit of deciding whom to blame. Whose fault is it, really, that so many subprime mortgages were made based on so little documentation and then securitized and sold so many times under more and more complicated structures?

Her lawyers insist the accusations have no merit and the misstatement she is alleged to have made was no big deal. But Mary Schapiro´s alleged improprieties during the merger between the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers has direct bearing on her possible tenure at the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Obama administration´s pick for SEC chairman will likely need to better explain herself at her nomination hearing this week.

Things are heating up on the Hill with bankruptcy reform and the stimulus package, and the week before the presidential inauguration promises to be action-packed. Some believe President-elect Barack Obama´s economic team could ask for the second half of the Tarp money before Mr. Obama takes office. House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., could bring a bill conditioning the release of the money to the floor this week. Other things to watch for: a new president the New York Fed; Citigroup lobbyists dodging rotten tomatoes; an auto parts industry bailout?