Geithner plans book on crisis

Timothy Geithner

NEW YORK (AP) ― Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will write a book focusing on his response to the financial crisis, the Associated Press has learned.

Geithner, 51, will be represented by Washington-based attorney Robert Barnett, who confirmed Wednesday that Geithner would be meeting with publishers but otherwise declined comment. Barnett has negotiated deals for President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Few treasury secretaries have attracted as much attention as Geithner, who has been praised for preventing a second Great Depression but criticized for being too sympathetic to Wall Street.

Geithner has not started writing the book and no timetable has been set for a deal, but an official with knowledge of his plans says the goal is for publication in 2014. The official asked not to be identified, saying that no formal announcement would be made until an agreement is reached with a publisher.

Geithner, who stepped down Jan. 25, was the last remaining original economic adviser to Obama. In an Associated Press interview given shortly before he left office, he defended such controversial actions as bailing out large banks, saying, “It is very hard to convince people or make credible to people the risks that we were living with at that time. That we could have had a much deeper collapse of not just the U.S. economy but the global economy.”

Also Wednesday, the Council on Foreign Relations announced that Geithner will become a distinguished fellow with the organization. Geithner had previously been a senior fellow with the council in 2001 after he stepped down as Treasury undersecretary for international affairs in the administration of President Bill Clinton.