Timothy Geithner, Regional Federal Reserve President for TARP (2008) and Treasury Secretary 2009-13, is making news waves with his new book and double-down defense of his actions, 'Stress Test'. According to James Freeman of The Wall Street Journal, the man at or near the center of the $800 billion bank bailout had no private-sector finance experience prior to becoming President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Also according to Freeman, by Geithner's own admission, he (Geithner) "didn't see the mortgage crisis coming and didn't grasp the severity of the problems after it occurred."
Those of us familiar with Austrian Business Cycle theory, including the Wall Street Journal editorial board circa 2007, could not have seen it more clearly if we were tied to railroad tracks with a locomotive bearing down on us.
To understand what I'm talking about, see: How the Business Cycle Happens, by Murray Rothbard.
[Aside to Rothbard/Rockwell/Ron Paul haters: Get over it. We're not talking foreign policy here.]
To see what Freeman is talking about, see his book review: The Man Who Knew too Little.
For the antidote to TARP bailout apologists, see Thomas Sowell's 'The Housing Boom and Bust' and/or John Allison's 'The Financial Crisis and the Free-Market Cure'.