Geithner’s got it, James Cramer writes in New York—much to his own surprise. Cramer notes that he's railed against the Treasury chief for months, but he's now come around just as others have abandoned him. “The press, the pols, the Wall Streeters—they are all dumping their golden boy just when he’s figured out how to solve the most intractable set of financial woes since the ones that landed on FDR’s desk 76 years ago.”
Banks need recapitalization, and they need to take bad assets off their books. And some banks just need to fail. Geithner’s plan blends all three ideas: He’ll determine which banks are worth saving, inject money into the good ones, and offer financing that encourages private investors to buy up bad assets. The plan is cheaper to taxpayers than nationalization and lets the private sector take on the burden. Let's just hope Geithner can survive the political storm long enough to get it enacted.
(More financial crisis stories.)