It's Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's birthday today, and the department's official Flickr account posted a photo of his sad little birthday cake -- which is not actually a cake, but a cupcake, sitting on a disposable coffee cup lid, with candles bigger than the cupcake itself is.
Geithner's had a rough few months, what with the struggling economy and the S&P credit downgrade and taking a daily beating from Republicans and all. Noting the cupcake photo, CNBC's John Carney tweeted "Austerity now comes with frosting." Mean Dave Weigel responded, "Enough to share with all his friends!" Fellow meanies at Street Insider noted Wall Street did not throw Geithner a party:
Along with President Barack Obama, Tim's milestone brings within tumultuous markets and fire and brimstone and locusts. The Dow closed down 419 points today, or 3.68 percent. The number was shy of the 512.76 ,or 4.31 percent, drop on August 4th...Obama's birthday.Now, just so we can prepare, when's Bernanke's birthday?
Poor Geithner. No wonder he wants to get out of Washington.
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Elspeth Reeve
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