Tim Geithner warns on Europe, fiscal cliff - by Jonathan Allen

The U.S. financial system has regained its footing since the crisis of a few years ago but is still threatened by instability in Europe and uncertainty about taxes and spending at home, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will tell a House committee on Wednesday.

In offering his takeaway from the annual Financial Stability Oversight Council report, Geithner will highlight falling debt among financial companies and individual citizens, according to a copy POLITICO obtained of his prepared remarks for a House Financial Services Committee hearing. And he will challenge Congress to make policy choices sooner rather than later to give the financial sector a greater sense of stability.

But it is Geithner’s response to questions on Libor, the London interest rate benchmark, that will have Wall Street bankers and congressional overseers on the edge of their seats.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, who sits on the panel, wrote a letter on Monday to Willam Dudley to ask what the New York Federal Reserve Bank did in 2008 about evidence that international banks were manipulating rates. Dudley is the New York Fed’s current president, and Geithner was its chief at the time.

Note EU-Digest : Mr. Geithner should look at how and why the economic problems in the US  caused the Global financial  meltdown before warning Europe or meddling in their business.

Read more: Tim Geithner warns on Europe, fiscal cliff - Jonathan Allen - POLITICO.com

Eurozone in no mood for Geithner's mercy mission - by David Prosser

Tim Geithner was polite enough to say that, given the economic problems back home, the US Treasury Secretary was notnecessarily in the best position to offer Europe advice on how to get out of its mess. Still, Mr Geithner must have wondered why he had bothered with a 6,000-mile round trip, given the Europeans' obvious distaste for any of his ideas.

No, they said, to an expansion of the European Financial Stability Fund, whether directly or through leverage. No, they said, to stimulating European economies with more expansionist fiscal policy. And no, they said, to Mr Geithner's contention that a new tax on banks would not work.

For more: David Prosser: Eurozone in no mood for Geithner's mercy mission - Business Comment, Business - The Independent