Latest Council on Foreign Relations Stories

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday the Treasury Department's first obligation was to ensure a strong financial system. Stability itself is not enough. We need a financial system that is not deepening or lengthening the recession, Geithner told the Congressional Oversight Panel, designed as an oversight committee to monitor the country's bailout efforts. While banks were looking for clues to see if the Treasury would allow repayment of bailout funds, Geithner said, in the...

Lawmakers want to severely increase U.S. defense against cyberattacks, creating proposals that would allow the government to write and implement security guidelines for confidential industry. The proposals would extend the focal point of the government's cybersecurity attempts to incorporate military networks as well as private systems that are in charge of electricity and water. Simultaneously, the bill would insert rules to guarantee industry conformity with theses rules, congressional...

COVER: "Obama Is Wrong" (p. 20). As the debate over the rescue of the financial system-which is crucial in stabilizing the economy and returning the country to prosperity-unfolds, Paul Krugman has emerged as President Obama's toughest liberal critic, writes Newsweek Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas in his profile of Krugman. Krugman, a columnist for The New York Times, a professor at Princeton and a Nobel Prize winner in economics, was a scourge of the Bush administration, but has been...

The U.S. Treasury released an outline of a draft bill addressing failures of financial firms whose downfall would ripple through the economic infrastructure.The bill would give the government the tools to limit the risk-taking at firms that could set off cascading damage, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told members of the Council on Foreign Relations Wednesday.The bill would allow the Treasury, with input from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve, to make...

Markets rallied Monday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner unveiled a public-private plan to thaw the nation's glacial lending streak. The Treasury, in effect, invited a variety of private funds from hedge funds to pension plans to purchase bank assets that have depreciated for more than a year with a combination of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guarantees and Treasury contributions as win-win enticements. Taxpayers should gain if the financial system creaks or bolts from its...

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has agreed to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC announced Monday. Rice is to stop by the late-night chat show Tuesday to discuss her years of high-profile public service, and her new areas of focus following the presidency of George W. Bush, the network said in a news release. Rice was the first female National Security Adviser and the first African-American woman to be appointed U.S. Secretary of State. She served in the Bush...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced he will unveil the details of a public-private bank bailout strategy Monday. As mapped out in an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal, Geithner bills the Public-Private Investment Program as an opportunity for investors as much as a public burden, that will take a substantial share of real-estate related assets off bank ledger sheets and, it is hoped, free lending to consumers and businesses. The program will start with a $500 billion...

WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- March 16, Germany's new Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Dr. Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg, will arrive in Washington, D.C. for political talks. He will meet Tuesday with Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, Larry Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, President of the International Monetary Fund a.o. The meetings will focus on...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said his goal was to accelerate regulatory changes to help prevent a future financial crisis. Analysts expect the list of tighter bank restrictions will include more transparency for bank-to-bank transactions and requirements of larger capital reserves for the nation's bigger banks, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Analysts also expect increased consumer protection measures and guidelines to prevent financial firms from dodging the tougher...

Both budget and political realities are putting the squeeze on U.S. Treasury policy decisions, a policy expert said. Their huge problem is that the American public is not willing to accept large losses for large financial institutions, said American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Vincent Reinhart, The New York Times reported Monday. At the same time, everything they are doing is about having the smallest possible footprint on the federal budget, Reinhart said. Money is scarce. The...