If Not Obama, Who Does Secretary Geithner Take Orders From?

Here's the story about how Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, perhaps emboldened by his ability to get away with tax evasion, decided in March 2009 to ignore President Obama's directive to dissolve Citibank.

As MIT Professor Simon Johnson and others have pointed out, the most recent financial crisis marked the third time in the last three decades that Citibank has needed a taxpayer financed bailout. In other words, once every 10 years on average Citibank goes bust.

Obama, perhaps aware of this fact, maybe thought it was time to put an end to the joke that Citibank and its lackluster management can stand on its own two feet without government backing. Why didn't Geithner agree with his boss?

Friends of Bob: Summers, Orszag and Geithner

Yves Smith has a theory. Another possibility is that dismantling Citibank would have put an end to the #1 preferred post-government destination for officials looking to cash-in like Robert Rubin, who pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation as Chairman of Citibank following his position as Treasury Secretary, and Peter Orszag, who left the Obama administration for a similar lucrative position with the megabank.

And what consequences has Geithner suffered for his supposed insubordination? Apparently none based on the fact that Obama purportedly had to beg him to stay on through the 2012 election.