Timothy Geithner Rails Against Large Bonuses At Financial Firms

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently publicly refuted comments from a couple of high-ranking Goldman Sachs' executives who had claimed that their firm could have survived the 2008 financial meltdown without government assistance.

Not so, according to Geithner.

According to a recent Bloomberg.com article, Lloyd Blankfein (CEO of Goldman Sachs) and Gary Cohn (President of Goldman Sachs) have both recently gone on record as stating that Goldman Sachs could have "survived the financial turmoil on its own without government help." Cohn stated that "I think we would not have failed - we had cash."

These comments would run contrary to the unfolding of events as told by Andrew Ross Sorkin in the recently released "Too Big To Fail" novel. According to Sorkin, Goldman Sachs executives were, in fact, extremely worried about the future of their firm during the darkest days of the financial crisis.

Timothy Geithner recently appeared on "Political Capital with Al Hunt" to address some of the comments made by Blankfein and Cohn.

Geithner claimed that the "entire financial system was at risk at the height of the crisis", and that all of the major firms across the country were at risk. He went on to say that banks were in the middle of a "classic bank run" and that there was a systemic risk.

Geithner went on to slam executive compensation packages at firms such as Goldman Sachs, stating that "we have to end the era of irresponsibly high bonuses".

Source: Bloomberg.com - Geithner Rejects Goldman Sachs Assertion It Didn't Need U.S. Help

Filed under: General Market News