By now you know that Timothy Geithner was confirmed by the Senate yesterday afternoon and immediately sworn in as the new Treasury Secretary.
But in case you missed the ceremony, here are his first official remarks. They aren't long, starting at six minutes into the video below, or here if you can't see it in your browser or are reading this via a feed rather than the blog page.
There were no big surprises in Geithner's remarks. Obviously, Treasury's first and major task is helping implement programs to get our economy back on track.
Geithner also hit all the right rhetorical notes about launching "the programs that will bring economic recovery sooner" and restoring "trust in our financial system" and "confidence in America's economic leadership around the world."
As for his buddies at IRS, where he had some personal filing issues pre-nomination, Geithner made one brief mention, vowing to "make our tax system better at rewarding work and investment."
And while his comments overall don't really lend themselves to any kind of tea leaf reading analysis, I suspect the inclusion of the word "investment" will give some remote hope to folks who want to see capital gains taxes remain at least at their current low levels. We shall see.
