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Timothy F. Geithner

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Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises Hardcover – Deckle Edge, May 12, 2014

by Timothy F. Geithner (Author)

4.4 1,430 ratings

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Stress Test is the story of Tim Geithner’s education in financial crises.

As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then as President Barack Obama’s secretary of the Treasury, Timothy F. Geithner helped the United States navigate the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, from boom to bust to rescue to recovery. In a candid, riveting, and historically illuminating memoir, he takes readers behind the scenes of the crisis, explaining the hard choices and politically unpalatable decisions he made to repair a broken financial system and prevent the collapse of the Main Street economy. This is the inside story of how a small group of policy makers—in a thick fog of uncertainty, with unimaginably high stakes—helped avoid a second depression but lost the American people doing it. Stress Test is also a valuable guide to how governments can better manage financial crises, because this one won’t be the last.

Stress Test reveals a side of Secretary Geithner the public has never seen, starting with his childhood as an American abroad. He recounts his early days as a young Treasury official helping to fight the international financial crises of the 1990s, then describes what he saw, what he did, and what he missed at the New York Fed before the Wall Street boom went bust. He takes readers inside the room as the crisis began, intensified, and burned out of control, discussing the most controversial episodes of his tenures at the New York Fed and the Treasury, including the rescue of Bear Stearns; the harrowing weekend when Lehman Brothers failed; the searing crucible of the AIG rescue as well as the furor over the firm’s lavish bonuses; the battles inside the Obama administration over his widely criticized but ultimately successful plan to end the crisis; and the bracing fight for the most sweeping financial reforms in more than seventy years. Secretary Geithner also describes the aftershocks of the crisis, including the administration’s efforts to address high unemployment, a series of brutal political battles over deficits and debt, and the drama over Europe’s repeated flirtations with the economic abyss.

Secretary Geithner is not a politician, but he has things to say about politics—the silliness, the nastiness, the toll it took on his family. But in the end, Stress Test is a hopeful story about public service. In this revealing memoir, Tim Geithner explains how America withstood the ultimate stress test of its political and financial systems.

Print length

592 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Crown
Publication date

May 12, 2014
Dimensions

6 x 2 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

9780804138598
ISBN-13

978-0804138598
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Editorial Reviews

Review

A Financial Times Best Book of 2014

“He’s written a really good book — we might as well get that out of the way, as so much else about Timothy F. Geithner remains unsettled… There’s hardly a moment in Geithner’s story when the reader feels he is being anything but straightforward — a near-superhuman feat for someone who spent so much time in public life defending himself from careless and dishonest personal attacks. The decisions he made are easier to criticize than they are to improve upon. I doubt many readers will put his book down and think the man did anything but his best. On his feet he might have stammered and wavered. That in itself was always a sign he was unusually brave.” –Michael Lewis, New York Times Book Review

“An intimate take on the financial crisis… gripping… conveys in visceral terms just how precarious things were during the crisis, just how frightened many first responders were, and just what an achievement it was to avert a major depression… [Geithner] demonstrates that he can discuss economics in an accessible fashion, making the situation the country faced in 2008 and 2009 tactile, comprehensible—and harrowing—to the lay reader. Along the way, he also gives us a telling portrait of himself.” –New York Times

“A how-to manual for anyone faced with a financial crisis… Mr Geithner was known for his brutal candor, and as an author, he does not disappoint.” —The Economist

“A fascinating memoir about life in the maelstrom of the financial crisis… Earlier books have described much of what happened that September, but Geithner was present for all the frantic meetings, the thousands of phone calls — and in the case of Lehman, the failure to find a buyer that could keep it alive. New problems cropped up almost weekly, if not daily. He explains each in easy-to-understand language and what the issues were that shaped the responses… There could be another crisis someday, of course, but what Geithner and his colleagues did has made one far less likely.” –USA Today

“Sharply worded and candid memoir.” —Financial Times

“Geithner does an admirable job of explaining the origins and complexities of the crisis for the average person. But there’s enough detail and retrospective lessons-learned to make it valuable for students of financial history….fast-paced and colorful….Stress Test goes beyond other crisis books.” –Los Angeles Times

“Throughout Stress Test, one gains a deep appreciation for the heart-pumping decisions made by Geithner and his colleagues from 2007 through 2012. And he makes a compelling case that overhwelming force is necessary in crisis, and that the measures taken by the Fed and two successive administrations prevented even more pain for ordinary Americans.” –WashingtonPost.com

“An unsparing insider’s account of the financial crisis from the former Secretary of the Treasury, unpacking the hard decisions and terrible trade-offs that devastated the economy but staved off a deep, lasting depression.” —TIME.com

“The central irony of Stress Test, the new memoir by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, is that a guy who was accused of being a lousy communicator while in office has penned a book that is such a good read…I’ve now read four or five of these first drafts of the history of the Great Recession, and I believe Stress Test represents the biggest contribution of the bunch.” —Bill Gates

“Sensational . . . Tim’s book will forever be the definitive work on what causes financial panics and what must be done to stem them when they occur.” —Warren Buffett

“Very few important subjects in American history have been the subject of as much disinformation and deliberate distortion as the events surrounding the financial crisis that broke in 2008. Tim Geithner’s candid, clear-headed, and refreshingly self-effacing account of his role in formulating the federal government’s response is a very welcome antidote. Geithner’s book is a triple threat: it is first-rate economic history, insightful political science, and, most important, a cogent exposition of the importance of adhering to the policies adopted in the aftermath of the crisis if we are to succeed in diminishing the likelihood of any recurrence.” —Barney Frank

“Stress Test is an absolutely compelling account of the financial crisis, written in a clear, graceful style with striking honesty at every step along the way. Timothy Geithner brings a complex story to life with telling anecdotes and personal reflections.” —Doris Kearns Goodwin

“This is a lucid, fascinating, and extremely important book. Every American should read it. Geithner does something unusual: he engages in substance. With both insight and humility, plus a good dose of wry humor, he explains what really happened during the financial crisis. No matter your political persuasion, you will find this book educational, enlightening, and interesting.” —Walter Isaacson

“The country owes Tim Geithner great appreciation for his role in overcoming the financial crisis of 2008. He has now indebted it further with writing a thoughtful, very readable and informative account of the conduct of policy at the edge of disaster.” —Henry A. Kissinger

About the Author

TIMOTHY F. GEITHNER was the seventy-fifth secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and previously served as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He wrote this book as a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0804138591
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crown; First Edition (May 12, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780804138598
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0804138598
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 2 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #250,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #119 in Government Management
- #837 in Business Professional's Biographies
- #1,235 in Political Leader Biographies

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Jeff and Kristin

Geithner's take is first rate reading and analysis

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2014

Verified Purchase

"Everyone's got a strategy until they get punched in the face."
--MIKE TYSON

Former Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, has finally written his version of the Great Recession in which he oversaw the $700 billion intervention for the financial services system. The former Secretary quotes Mike Tyson to shed light on his own predicament: Geithner had a strategy, but convincing Congress and an administration bent on punishing business changed the way he played the game. Geithner admits the experience left him with scars. He saw appalling behavior in the political arena--"selfish and grandstanding, shameless hypocrisy, and mindless partisanship."

Stress Test is a fascinating behind-the-scenes history of the period as well as a warning sign of deeper fractures in our country's relations between business and politics. The overarching theme is based on a biblical conceit in which the average fellow--blindsided and gored by risk hungry bulls, and Geithner is clearly biased about who he feels deserves the blame - Wall Street, Republicans in Congress, and less conscientious regulators--is now demanding divine intervention and some brutal "Old Testament punishment."

At its depth, $15 trillion in wealth disappeared from American's balance sheets, bringing pensions and the college and retirement funds of average Americans to an abrupt halt. Nearly 9 million workers lost jobs and an equal number slipped below the poverty level. Unemployment rose to 10 percent. Then the causes started to surface and we began hearing about these newfangled things called derivatives, CDS and CDS squared. Most Americans agreed with former Fed Chair Paul Volcker who quipped, "There hasn't been a useful financial innovation since the ATM."

The turnaround that Geithner describes--in which the leading characters in addition to himself include President Barack Obama; two-term Fed Chair Ben Bernanke; economic advisor Larry Summers; and scores of Great Recession warriors--ultimately enabled the country to right itself and make a return on its investment, so that by the end of 2010 the government owned no more banks. Geithner's retelling of this tale is perfect bliss for those obsessed with America's story of the Great Recession.

But even the most supportive reader has to ask why, as president of the New York Fed, even he was blindsided by the collapse of Lehman and the impact on other major investment banks over which he had jurisdiction? He writes candidly about the strange set of circumstances that led him to appoint Dick Fuld to the NY Fed board, and subsequently when everything went wrong, had to walk that back in a hurry. But how could a savvy regulator be caught unawares by the timing of the financial crisis given exhibit number one was a board director, and the Fed was indeed the official regulator of the other major banks? The banker's misdeeds, if business practices that were condoned and approved by regulators could be called that, should have been quite easily discovered by the annual audits the Fed conducts on all regulated firms. Instead, Geithner points at the shadow banking system that included Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, unregulated mortgage originators, and firms that "behaved like banks without having to obey bank safety and soundness rules." The only plausible answer is that none of the bankers, nor anyone in power at the time, foresaw the housing crisis morph into the credit crisis and from there to the global financial meltdown. This is not to blame Geithner, in fact, he should be praised for his brilliant performance, but to observe that no one knew how devastating this was going to be.

One regulator did have a hunch, however, and Geithner takes her on somewhat defensively. Brooksley Born, the feisty and outspoken chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), was the first to "float the idea of regulating privately traded derivatives." Geithner pauses here to give a pass to all the U.S. regulators who felt her proposal would "create dangerous legal uncertainties and ultimately financial chaos". It wasn't Born vs. the Old Boys Club, he asserts, before impaling the CFTC as unequal to the Fed, and a captive voice of Chicago trading culture. In the end, Geithner writes, Born "just didn't have a plausible plan." Ouch.

In politics, what really matters is not what you did as what you do, which explains why George W. Bush and his Fed chair, Alan Greenspan, get short shrift, while Elizabeth Warren is treated royally.

An entire chapter could be devoted to Larry Summers, whose brilliance Geithner underscores with a quote from Henry Kissinger: "All administrations should have a permanent office for Larry Summers."

For political and economic history junkies, Stress Test is required, and even enjoyable reading. It is a story that hopefully no one will need to rewrite any time soon.

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The Ginger Man

Back From the Abyss

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2014

Verified Purchase

In Stress Test, Timothy Geithner delivers a day by day (often hour by hour) account of the role played by the federal government in rescuing the economy from collapse in 2007. In reading his memoir, I got some of the same feelings I experience when reading first hand accounts of the principals reacting to the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962. Geithner details the actions of public officials trying to avoid almost incalculable consequences armed with limited options, few resources and an extremely small window for decision-making. As the Bush Administration, candidates in the 2008 presidential election and a divided Congress debated what was occurring, Poulson, Bernacke and the author fought sleep deprivation and faced down populist clamoring for moral retribution as they tried to craft tactics to slow the economic slide and rebuild confidence in the financial community.

Since we were able to pull back from the edge of the financial abyss (just as the Russian ships halted at the blockade in 1962), the results of the 2007 crash have taken on an air of inevitability. Geithner's account reminds us, however, that decision-makers at the time neither had full knowledge of what was occurring nor could they agree on how the world might look as a result of their action or inaction. The author observes, "you can't be sure whether the initial market turmoil is a healthy adjustment or the start of a systemic meltdown."

The federal government pumped $62 billion dollars into the financial system in the early days of the crisis. Immediately, opposition to government intervention began to form as Washington became "a cauldron of Old Testament populism and moral hazard fundamentalism." Bernacke was determined to avoid market trauma that could hurt ordinary Americans. "The grass gets trampled, "said Bernacke, "when elephants fall." Geithner argues that' "a full-blown financial crisis would threaten jobs, homes, retirement savings, car loans, student loans, small business loans and international trade, not just exorbitant Wall Street bonuses."

As one reads the transcripts of Executive Committee meetings during the Missile Crisis, one can sense the uncertainty of decision-makers as they agonized over the limited options available to break the impasse. Similarly, Geithner admits, "I felt like I was watching a disaster unfold in slow motion with no ability to prevent it and weak tools to limit the damage." Each of the steps taken during the 07 collapse became "an exercise in triage." He recounts a timeline in which almost every action would have been unlikely if not impossible a few days prior. Regarding the steps to save AIG, Geithner says, "Before that week, it would have been hard to fathom the Fed lending into a run and being provided a four-fifths stake in a trillion dollar insurance company...In times of crisis, you will do things you thought you'd never do."

It is easy to criticize each individual action taken by government during the crisis and to question the motives of decision-makers. Stress Test seems to show, however, that the sum total of those actions brought the world economy back from the brink of the abyss. Tough and unprecedented decisions were made by people feeling "the overwhelming burden of responsibility combined with the paralyzing risk of catastrophic failure."

Geithner expresses frustration that individuals on Wall Street suffered little from the events they caused. When Merrill Lynch was forced into the largest write-down in Wall Street history ($7.9B), the author notes that CEO Stan O'Neal was forced out "although he did receive a $161.5 million severance to ease the blow." He jokes that there would be less moral hazard in Fed liquidity facilities if CEOs had to place their own homes up as collateral ahead of the assets of the firm. Seeing an oceanfront mansion on Martha's Vineyard during the crisis, he said to a friend, "That one right there should have been the first loss." But, in the end, argues Geithner, "this was not the time to focus on punishing the arsonists. It was time to focus on putting out the fire."

More time should probably be spent understanding the dangers averted in 2007 (as in 1962) rather than in America's endless fascination with events such as the disappearance of Flight 370. People should put aside knee jerk ideological reactions and emotional recriminations and add Stress Test to a list of accounts that provide a window into the inner workings of a democracy in crisis. There is enough that is accurate in this book to allow it to function as a source of information to be considered in triangulation with other accounts. Even though the events it describes are complex and the scale daunting, Geithner's book was for me as mesmerizing as the deliberations of the Exec Comm in the even more challenging days of October 1962.

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Rosandro Oliveira Azevedo

Indispensável para o entendimento da crise 2008

Reviewed in Brazil on July 2, 2021

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Sinta-se parte das decisões, consequências e o estresse vivido por quem estava na linha de frente na crise 2008. Leitura super recomendado para visualizar os motivos que antecederam a crise e as medidas tomadas e não tomadas para controlá-la. Além de conhecer a interessante bibliografia de Timothy Geithner.

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LIBRAZO

Reviewed in Spain on November 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

Explicación muy practica de lo ocurrido en la crisis y como fueron actuando, desde una visión para todos los públicos

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D&S Pete

A very good overview of the Great Recession

Reviewed in Canada on September 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

A well written book about the Recession of 2007-2012. The book is very informative about making decisions without knowing fully the effects of the decisions being make in a highly flued situation. Well worth the time to read 500 pages

Jaime Trujillo García

El libro me llegó firmado

Reviewed in Mexico on July 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

Compré el libro porque Warren Buffet lo puso en su lista de libros favoritos, excelentes historias de como lograron detener la economía americana de un desastre. El autor te pone en sus zapatos y te hace sentir una parte de lo que él vivió en aquella dura época.

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Filippo

Avvincente, dettagliato, a volte autoassolutorio

Reviewed in Italy on September 10, 2019

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Ancora in corso di lettura (molto più voluminoso del previsto e la lingua - é in inglese - non agevola, specie in alcuni punti). La arte iniziale é molto autobiografica, poteva essere molto più breve; a parte ciò, fin dove ho letto é più avvincente di molti romanzi. In alcuni punti sembra tendere all'autoassoluzione, ma nel complesso giudizio molto positivo.

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