Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has gone to Europe to visit the finance minister of Germany, Wolfgang Schaeuble, and European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi. His hosts often do not welcome Geithner because he uses his time in Europe to lecture the leaders of EU countries about the shortcomings of their banking systems and bailout approaches. The Europeans hate it and want to know why Geithner has done so little to fix similar problems in the United States. But Geithner has a good motivation to go to Europe.
Draghi wants to help the European nations that have to pay high yields to raise money through the aggressive purchase of their sovereign debt. The Germans have said they are skeptical and may try to slow or block the plan. Even if the Germans go along, no one knows whether the ECB can buy enough of the sovereign paper of nations like Spain, should capital markets continue to dump it.
Douglas A. McIntyre