'I am not a crook!'

Well, Mr Geithner has been confirmed as secretary of the US Treasury. The only bright side of this dismal affair is that 34 senators mustered the good sense to vote against confirming the man who 'forgot' to pay $34,000 in payroll taxes. Can you imagine the outroar among the Good People if that bit of chicanery had been tied to a Bush or Nixon nominee? (Indeed, Mr Geithner's defense reminded me of Nixon's infamous press conference: "I am not not a crook." We laughed at Nixon, but we hired Timothy Geithner.)

Can you imagine a cabinet appointment more likely to deepen the recession that the treasury secretary among others is supposed to address? As Yale economist Robert Schiller argues in the Wall Street Journal this morning, a prospering economy depends above all else on the trust we have in one another--trust that debts will be repaid, trust that stockbrokers are honest, trust that Barney Frank will not steer taxpayer millions to one favored bank, and trust that our government officials will pay their taxes like the rest of us. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford