Geithner makes case for financial reform

The piece also stressed the need for the creation of a consumer protection agency.

“The best way to protect American families who take out a mortgage or a car loan or who save to put their kids through college is through an independent, accountable agency that can set and enforce clear rules of the road across the financial marketplace,” Geithner wrote. 

The Secretary also endorsed the Senate reform bill, in part, because it “limits banks from owning, investing, or sponsoring hedge funds, private equity funds or proprietary trading operations for their owen profit unrelated to serving their customers.”

Geithner also stated in the piece that repairing the financial system is costing less than expected. He pegged the cost of the Trouble Assets Relief Program at $117 billion.  

More broadly, we estimate the overall cost of this crisis will be a fraction of what was originally feared and much less than what was required to resolve the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s.”