Latest Council on Foreign Relations Stories

The U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment of Neal Wolin to serve as deputy secretary of the Treasury, the department said in a release Tuesday. Wolin served previously as the deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel for economic policy. He was the general counsel of the Treasury Department from 1999 to 2001, the release said. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he was thrilled to have Neal return to the department. Neal brings a deep knowledge of the Treasury Department and...

Critical decisions are piling up at the U.S. Treasury nearly four months after Timothy Geithner became treasury secretary, officials said.Scrambling to assemble new programs in the midst of a financial crisis, the Treasury appears to be run by a core group of counselors who are not authorized to make key decisions, The Washington Post reported Monday. Major decisions can happen very fast at the top, and then after that there are tons of detail and nuances that have to get worked out without...

The New York Federal Reserve was aware of American International Group Inc.'s bonus pay plans months before the public controversy, government records show. The New York Fed had five months head start on the controversy and was working with AIG -- along with legal and public relations experts -- to manage the public reaction they anticipated, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. It was not until the end of February, however, that the New York Fed alerted the new Obama administration that...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday recently concluded financial stress tests would give investors a clearer picture of the nation's banks. "The effect of this capital assessment will be to replace uncertainty with transparency, Geithner wrote in a New York Times Op-Ed article prior to the public release of the test results. It will also bring more private capital into the financial system, he wrote, because investors will be able to differentiate more clearly among...

Hosted By Asia Society Northern California and Bay Area Council in San Francisco San Francisco, April 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Asia Society Northern California and the Bay Area Council will host the conference "Scaling Up: From Green Buildings to Green Cities in the U.S. and China" in San Francisco on May 1, 2009. The event will take place from 9:00 am to 5:15 pm at the PG&E Auditorium at 77 Beale St. The green building revolution has begun, but it has far to go. To combat global...

US President Barack Obama is staying true to his pledge to reverse the environmental policies of the former Bush administration, but Congress will ultimately decide the success of his battle over global warming, the AFP reported.Michael Levi, climate change expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the president has laid out ambitious goals for climate policy as well as measures promoting environmentally friendly industries.Earlier this month, the US Environmental Protection Agency set...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said his track record shows he was early to detect flaws in the financial system and is an advocate of big rescues.In a recent interview, Geithner said he was a consistently dark voice about the potential risks ahead, and a principal source of initiatives designed to make the system stronger, The New York Times reported Monday.Having come from the club-like environment of the New York Federal Reserve, the young treasury secretary is vulnerable to...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday the United States was dependent on a global recovery to prosper again. Speaking at The Economic Club of Washington Geithner said the United States bore a substantial share of the responsibility for the current economic crisis. He also said the rest of the world needs the U.S. economy and financial system to recover in order for it to revive. In turn, we need the rest of the world to recover if we are to prosper again here at home, he...

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...