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Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner explains to Deputy Managing Editor Alan Murray the need to keep the Federal Reserve free from political influence, plus answers other questions submitted and voted on by Digg users in partnership with The Wall Street Journal.The top questions submitted and voted on by the Digg community are:
- Why has the federal reserve bank never been audited? (+1133 diggs, submitted by Borez)
- Goldman Sachs is a large, profit seeking company which you were/are a part of. Isn't it a conflict of interest to funnel tax dollars into this private company using your new power as Secretary of the Treasury, keeping in mind that you and your old buddies benefit monetarily? Maybe I'm mistaken, but isn't this a textbook example of political corruption? (+729 diggs, submitted by larryjr88)
- What is your position on Ron Paul's House Resolution 1207? (Which as of the writing of this question has 282 cosponsors.) http://www.auditthefed.com/ (+713 diggs, submitted by Motobike_man)
- You failed to pay some of your federal taxes in 2001. And in 2002. And in 2003. And in 2004. Please explain. (+690 diggs, submitted by zwendkos)
- How do you feel about the revolving door between high job positions in the treasury and Goldman Sachs? (+581 diggs, submitted by keythb)
- Last week you requested that Congress raise the $12.1 trillion statutory debt limit, saying that it could be breached as early as mid-October. This is in addition to the increase already approved in February this year to accommodate the added debt from the $787 Billion stimulus plan. How is this anything other than runaway government spending? What will it take for us to see US debt go the other direction? (+520 diggs, submitted by bossm4n)
- Why is the government only supporting aging and increasingly obsolete car makers? You've given an extraordinary amount of money to GM, but the government has failed to encourage new, innovative, and cleaner forms of personal transportation such as produced by Tesla Motors. Why has TARP money not been invested in companies such as Tesla, and will the government support similar companies in the future? (+439 diggs, submitted by danielrh9)
- Are you, yourself, troubled by the massive amount of government spending? What do you think will happen to the dollar over the next 10 years? (+376 diggs, submitted by erikwithaknotac)
- You are a member of the Federal Reserve, a group that so thoroughly mismanaged our monetary policy that they helped create a massive housing bubble because of foolish loans and speculation enabled by low interest rates, and then you were involved in a horribly mismanaged bailout that hasn't freed up credit markets and can't even account for all the money it spent. Why are you running the Treasury Department? (+358 diggs, submitted by zwendkos)
- You've amended your tax returns for the years 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006 and found that you've owed an additional $31,536 (http://finance.senate.gov/press/Bpress/2009press/p ... Giving you the benefit of a doubt (that you are neither inept nor corrupt but were simply overwhelmed by an overly complex system), what recommendations do you have for simplifying the tax code? (+350 diggs, submitted by steamer25)
