Fire Timothy Geithner Now

We have a couple new developments, first was that Merrill Lynch told both the SEC and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that Lehman was cooking the books:

Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Reserve officials were warned by a leading Wall Street rival that Lehman Brothers was incorrectly calculating a key measure of its financial health months before its collapse in 2008, people familiar with the matter say.

Former Merrill Lynch officials said they contacted regulators about the way Lehman measured its liquidity position for competitive reasons.

…

he findings raise questions over what federal regulators knew about Lehman’s accounting and when they knew it. In the account given by the Merrill officials, the SEC, the lead regulator, and the New York Federal Reserve were given warnings about Lehman’s balance sheet calculations as far back as March 2008.

Former and current Fed officials say even in the competitive world of Wall Street, it is un­usual for rival bankers to relay such concerns to the Fed.

It takes an awful lot to get one investment bank to rat out another, the first rule of Wall Street is never tell the regulators, and and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, president Timothy "Eddie Haskell" Geithner, as well as the SEC, which was largely deferring to the NY Fed, decided to ignore it.

Actually, it's more. Not only did Geithner's Bank ignore the reports, it bought junk grade debt from Lehman in violation of the law:

As Lehman Brothers careened toward bankruptcy in 2008, the New York Federal Reserve Bank came to its rescue, sopping up junk loans that the investment bank couldn't sell in the market, according to a report from court-appointed examiner Anton R. Valukas.

The New York Fed, under the direction of now-Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, knowingly allowed itself to be used as a "warehouse" for junk loans, the report says, even though Fed guidelines say it can only accept investment grade bonds.

Meanwhile, the Fed and Geithner both strongly oppose a congressional measure to authorize an independent audit of the central bank and its lending facilities. The provision passed the House but is under attack in the Senate, where Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) says he hopes to stop it.

Without an audit, the Fed is able to conceal the specifics of what it holds on its balance sheet. If the Lehman deal is any indication, the Fed is hiding billions of dollars in toxic loans on its books.

"The Fed legally is forbidden from taking such assets. There's a legal requirement that the Fed's assets be investment grade," Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) told HuffPost. Grayson, who is the cosponsor of the Grayson-Paul Audit the Fed measure that passed the House, said the Lehman scandal shows precisely why such an audit is needed.

Seriously, he cheated on his taxes, he's aided and abetted the pervasive accounting fraud at Lehman, and he's still in the bank's pocket.

I understand that his successor will face a filibuster, but please, fire him, and go with a recess appointment.

It doesn't matter that he knows where the bodies are buried if he's a part of the gang what murdered the economy, and he's still working flashing gang symbols to Dimon and Blankfien.