Geithner, the empty seats at Treasury, and Max Weber

It became a “case” in America and in the World: U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Geithner just can’t fill in the blanks in his department’s organizational chart. In Washington, his mistakes in the AIG scandal (Obama had to tell him off and intervene on managers’ bonuses) were ascribed to his lack of help at the head of a department that faces huge challenges in difficult times.

Foreign capitals are even meaner. Gordon Brown confides that in preparation for the G-20 in London, he can’t have a constructive dialogue with Americans, “because at Treasury in Washington, nobody answers the phone”. Still, you can’t really say that Geithner isn’t trying to recruit collaborators. Of course, he is offering low salaries in comparison with the private sector, but right now there are a lot of young bankers and top managers out of work. And the modest entries are compensated by the possibility of proudly taking part in a historic mission: to save America and the World from depression.

The lack of managers gave birth to a malicious explanation: “Treasury no longer has appeal since candidates learned they would have to prove in Senate hearings that they always have paid taxes”. Max Weber, the one who wrote “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, would probably be ashamed.