WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Former U.S. Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner is still not interested in being the
next head the Federal Reserve, a source familiar with his
thinking said on Sunday, after front-runner Lawrence Summers
withdrew his name from consideration.
The source, who declined to be identified, said Geithner
remains firm in the view that he expressed back in January, when
he stepped down from his post at Treasury, that the next Fed
chair will be “someone else’s privilege.”
Former White House advisor Summers unexpectedly withdrew his
name from consideration for the Fed job on Sunday, which
President Barack Obama accepted.
Summers’ decision followed a bitter campaign mounted by
members of his own Democratic Party against his nomination,
based on criticism of his support for banking deregulation and
comments in the past they viewed as sexist.
Geithner is a close Obama confident who has been
persistently talked about by Fed watchers as a candidate to
replace Ben Bernanke, the U.S. central bank’s current chief,
when his term expires in January.
This speculation has refused to die, despite Geithner’s
public comment to the contrary, and the fact that he is writing
a book about his time in office.
