You are staring at the bumper in front of you as you drive to work and half listen to the radio. As you sip your hot coffee with Splenda, you hear about “Geithner’s $2 trillion plan to remove toxic assets and restore liquidity to the financial sector.” Huh? What the heck does that mean? Maybe one of the reasons we have reacted so strongly to the AIG bonuses is that at least we can understand the issue. Taking money from taxpayers and giving it to executives as a bonus for destroying a company: bad. $2 trillion for removal of toxic assets: who knows? Perhaps if we have a better understanding of this economic mess, we can hold Congress accountable for acting like Red Bull crazed 9^th graders.

So, I’m going to try to lay this out.

Geithner: Our Secretary of the Treasury, appointed by President Obama and approved by Congress. He largely works alone, since some members of Congress (who are supposed to review the appointments of Assistant Secretaries) have become so antagonistic and unpleasant that they have scared off anyone from becoming one of Geithner’s  assistants. Tough job! Lonely at the top!