timothy geithner on the right, and mr. lew on the screen. on at twitter there are some opposing viewpoints. james from birmingham, alabama on the democrats' line. caller: mr. timothy geithner is try to help the economy get back strong like before. a lot of people will look at this. host: tennessee, the independent line. just then. caller: i am finding myself have a hard time listening to these people call in and say these great things about timothy geithner considering the fact he came into his position 0 in $50,000 in taxes, which he failed at that juncture to pay. afterwards he was able to do so. had he not been put in that position, i asked myself if he would have been among the fat cats who did not have to pay taxes or any other number of things they have been shielded from during the past four years of absolutely hideous and unconstitutional fiscal and monetary policy. host: what is chief among the policies he would criticize? caller: the big one is a lot of people did not ask who we owe the debt to. we do not owe the debt to a federal i

volatility out of the market but what they are worried about is lack of relationship that timothy geithner had and apparently mr he was their regulator. co-call these guys up on first-name basis. we know jack lew had contact with these people on a fairly regular basis but not the relationship geithner had or that paulson had. >> geithner, as you said, could call them up. he could also call them in. >> as what paulson did and geithner. >> i could say for sure, steve, that they don't know, jack lew don't here at all. >> they don't know him at all. >> i love your full screen this morning on that. but if he could make a quick deal, on the debt ceiling and on the sequester, that would be enough. he would establish his bona fides very quickly with wall street if something positive could happen relatively soon on that front. >> let me just establish here, i'm not sure abraham lincoln could make a quick deal on the debt ceiling. >> on that note, here is the president. >> good afternoon, everybody. please have a seat. a little more than four years ago, i stood with mr. tim geithner and announced him as my first nominee

timothy geiger and mr. jacob lew. >> good afternoon, everybody. please have a seat. a little more than four years ago, i stood with mr. tim geithner and denounced him as my first nominee to my cabinet. we were barely two months into the financial crisis. the stock market had greater and the housing market had cratered as well. bank after bank was on the verge of collapse. worst of all, more than 800,000 americans would lose their jobs in just that month. and the bottom was not yet in sight. i could not blamed him when he tried to tell me he was not the right guy for the job. [applause] but i knew that his extensive experience with economic policy made him qualified. i knew he could hit the ground running. he had just spent several sleepless and chaotic weeks emerged in the crisis and had been working closely with his republican predecessor to save the financial sector. then with the wreckage of our economy still smoldering and unstable, i asked him to help me put it back together. thanks in large part to his steady hand, our economy has been growing, our businesses have created nearly 6 million new jobs, the money we spend to save

mr. geithner became treasury secretary, he changed his signature. he changed it from the rather lovely loop de loops on the left to the fifth grader's cursive timothy f. geithner you see on the right. here he is explaining why. >> i think on the dollar bill i had to write something that people could read my name. i didn't try for elegance. i just tried for elegance. >> because mrs. quigley, the first grade writing teach worry have given me an "f" on that. >> i took third grade in new delhi, india. >> whether it is foreign penmanship instruction or something weirder, tim geithner's changed signature never got nearly the attention that his successor's signature received. all of the media got fixated on a signature that is loopier than tim geithner's original signature. this is jack lew. all signs point to president obama say i knowing him to replace tim geithner. and if he is nominated and confirmed, that will mean that our money might end up looking like this. because that is jack lew's signature on it. if he doesn't choose to tune up the legibility of the loop de loops like tim geithner did, our money mite look like this. what "new york" magazine de

mr. obama's choice to replace hillary clinton. jack lew will replace timothy geithner. hagel at the pentagon. the president will be down to how many women? you will have the labor position to fill. again, you have hillary clinton leaving, connell and i were going through the list. there are few women in cabinet positions. connell: charlie rangel is here with us to talk about this. is this a big problem for the president, the lack of diversity >> i spent so much time making fun of republicans and the action not women and jewish people in the congress and blacks and hispanics, it has just been unreal. i will have to explain why our picture looks the same. i do not think we should just look for women. we should have qualified people out there. we have not found them. that is just not true. it is a problem. it is a problem that can and i am convinced will be corrected. dagen: how will it be corrected? >> first of all, we have the president. nobody would rather have somebody like that speaking out for him. we have an opposite thing. we know the commitment is there, but the a

timothy geithner. is this a missed opportunity to be friendly to business, the business community, or is this a new call since it appears that nobody on earth knows this better than mr. lew. >> well, i think jamie dimon would build business between the community which feels a little bit alienated by the administration's first-term policies and mr. obama. but what they got is a guy -- not one of them, but does know the budget really well and the clearly the main challenge on the economic front for the first year is going to be on the fiscal front. insofar as jack lew has the trust of the president is in power to make deals, i would say that is is a positive. you do have to keep in mind he's not exactly the most trusted or liked person among republican on capitol hill. so that might actually make deal making a little bit rougher. >> jerry, what about all of these issues, you know, in washington. the debt ceiling fight that's on the horizon. is this going to impact the broad economy in the earning season, do you think? >> i guess this whole political thing is these are all the bricks in the wall of worry that equity markets are continuing to climb. you know, we know ho

timothy geithner. is this a missed opportunity to be friendly to business, the business community, or is this a good call, since it appears nobody on earth knows the budget better than mrand the business community would indeed have liked somebody who was perhaps of their own ranks. somebody like a jamie dymond or larry fink, who could build bridges between the business community, which feels a little bit alienated by the administration's first-term policies. and mr. obama. but what they got was a guy who, while not one of them -- at least does know the budget really well, and clearly the main challenge on the economic front for the -- first year is going to be on the fiscal front. so insofar as jack lew has the trust of the president has in power to make deals, i would say that's a positive. but you have to keep in mind, he's not exactly the most trusted or liked person among republicans on capitol hill so that make make deal making a little rougher. >> jerry, what about all these issues in washington, the debt ceiling fight on the horizon. is this going to impact the broad economy and the earnings season, do you think? >> i guess this whole political thing is -- these

timothy geithner. he had to do to to print. it went from the first one to the second one. the second one much clearer. we have to see if mr. lew will have to do his as well. >> aig has been in the news a lot this week because of the shareholder lawsuit. >> congratulations aig is not suing not to join a shareholder lawsuit against the government and tax payer. which they receive add bailout. >> which they mapaid. >> the terms of the bailout were unfair to shareholders. even without aig's participation that will move forward. >> can the government just come in and grab a company and make itself own the company? that was another part of its lawsuit, too. >> tell us about this, facebook may be coming out with a phone of its own. >> it has been talked about in the past. media got an invite to facebook headquarters on tuesday. the invite said come and see what we are building. they have coached engineers from apple to work on that phone. it makes sense more than 150 million people access facebook on their mobile devices. those are twice as likely to be active. facebook shares went up by 5 percent they reached a level of $30 whic

timothy geithner at treasury. this is about 15 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states, accompanied by mr. jacob lew, and mr. denis mcdonough. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, everybody. please, everybody have a seat. good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the announcement of one of the worst kept secrets in washington. [laughter]as president i rely on an extraordinary team of men and women here at the white house every single day, and i rely on my chief of staff to keep up with them and our entire permit, making sure we are all moving in the right direction, they can share my high 40s are being -- making sure that my priorities are being carried carried out, and that our policies are consistent with the commitments that have made to the american people and that are delivering progress to the american people. as i said earlier this month, i could not be more grateful to jack lew for his amazing service, first as our omb director, than at the state department, and ultimately as my chief of staff. as he prepares for confirmation hearings, and the challenge of leading our treasury depar

mr. obama. >> i have no other announcements to make or updates to give with regards to personnel. i am sure that when the president nominates a successor to secretary timothy geithnerforward to speedy consideration by the senate but i don't have a timetable for that. i have no tkpaoeud answer to give you on the timing. it's very important for any president to have, you know, time and space to consider his or her nominees for these important positions. when he's ready to make an announcement he will. >> reporter: during the 2011 debt ceiling fight lew irritated a number of republican senators who called him rigid and arrogant. a new senator who will vote on this nomination when it happens was asked about lew on "fox news sunday." >> i wasn't up here during that debate, so he wasn't arrogant to me but i had not dealt with the man, so i'll keep an open mind, and with any treasury secretary nominee my view is going to be looking to the substance, and this is not supposed to be a popularity contest, this is about fixing the problems that are affecting millions of americans. >> reporter: they say jack lew deliberately kept a low pre file during the recent fiscal cliff ba

timothy geithner and jacob lew. >> a little more than four years ago i stood with mr. tim geithner, the first nominee to my cabinet. we were two months into the financial crisis. the stock market had cratered. bank after bank was on the verge of collapse. worst of all, more than 800,000 americans would lose their jobs in just that month. at the bottom was probably not yet in sight. i could not blame tim when he told me he was not the right guy for the job. [laughter] but on news that tim's extensive -- but i knew that experience with economic policy made him eminently qualified and i knew he could hit the ground running. as chairman of the federal reserve, he had just spent chaotic weeks emerged in the -- immersed in the crisis and had been working with the treasury to save the financial system. then when the wreckage -- with the wreckage of our economy unstable and still smoldering, i asked tim to help us put it back together. thanks in large part to his steady hand, our economy has been growing for the past three years. our businesses have created nearly 6 million ne

timothy geithner is jack lew. keep in mind he's problem the professor and frankenstein that created the monster known as the current budget, even for bush when i look at mr, this is a duo that i don't think will make the job of tackling spending any easier. am i missing something, congressman? >> no, if i read woodward's book correctly, wasn't it jack leb who was the architects of the sequester when that was proposed as a way get off the cliff last august? so, you know, again at some point we're going to have to start paying -- keeping the promising we have made to pay down some of this. you know, after the budget control act in august of 2011, we set our appropriations limit up to the maximum. i said, why do that? we all know we're going to have a disaster somewhere along the line that will require more money. sure enough, we had a once in a lifetime storm that hit the new york and new jersey, it's going to cost a lot of money to repair that. we should have saved some of the last year's budget in order to pay for last year's disaster. but, again that kind of thinking just doesn't seem to get anywhere. >> now, we only have about half a minute left. quick