Geithner in April: 'No risk' of downgrade

By M.L. Pershern

What little does one need these days to qualify as an "expert" in -- anything?...

It does not seem wholly unreasonable to base one's assessment of the reliability of some purported exceptionally talented "expert" in their chosen field, by observing the amount of time that passes between the time the purported "expert" makes some bold "expert" prognostication, and the time that bold "expert" prognostication is proven remarkably inaccurate and is thus, wholly discredited.

Now, in light of the fact that President Obama, and administration and Democrat notables have uttered some rather bold prognostications that have proven, with the passage of time to be, er, rather unreliable, I've been bookmarking articles which contain records of such bold prognostications, in a browser folder entitled, of course, "Prognostications."

With the recent extremely contentious debt limit "negotiations," and the S&P downgrade of the US credit rating, I reckon one such bold prognostication is worth revisiting. From an April 19, 2011 Reuters article:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, going on the offensive one day after Standard & Poor's threatened to lower its top-tier rating on U.S. government debt, said on Tuesday there was "no risk" of a downgrade

<snip>

"Actually, I think things are better than they've been if you want to think about the prospects for improving our long-term fiscal position," he said on CNBC.

"If you're looking very carefully at what's happening in Washington, you see people on both sides -- Democrats and Republicans -- agreeing with the president that we have to put in place some reforms now to bring down our long-term deficits," he added.

Now, certainly Mr. Geithner has made other

bold prognostications worthy of noting as well, however, in light of the serious impact of the S&P downgrade on the US and global markets, and the fact that Mr. Geithner made such a bold prognostication, barely four months ago and, now says he's going to remain at the Treasury, makes me ponder:

What little does one need these days to qualify as an "expert" in -- anything?...

M. L. Pershern is a 17-month unemployed Senior Architect Project Manager and, in accordance with the Pew Research Center's "Political Typology" quiz, a "staunch conservative," although he describes himself as an independent constitutional conservative.