Timothy Geithner’s India trip

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I had no idea until the NYTimes reported it earlier this week that our Treasury Secretary once lived in India:

Geithner was born in New York City but spent most of his childhood in other countries, including present-day Zimbabwe, Zambia, India and Thailand where he completed high school at the International School Bangkok. [Link]

Here is a picture of Geithner when he was a kid in India. For the love of…why didn’t some local teach him some cricket??

And while in India, Geithner needed some ironing done. Why can’t we buy those big ol’ irons here? My shirts are never pressed as well as they are in India.

Actually, this man is the local ATM machine. Click on the picture for an explanation

This looks like a drugstore. Did he need to pick up some Immodium?:

This drugstore actually offers mobile banking services. One-stop shopping.

Here is the takeaway from the trip as Geithner heads into meetings with India’s rival China:

India and the United States have launched a new economic partnership that offers “huge opportunities” for both countries, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Tuesday during a two-day visit to India aimed at strengthening ties with one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Although few details were disclosed, Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee invited U.S. companies to invest in the country’s booming construction industry, which is building airports, railroads and a planned 4,400 miles of highway a year in an effort to make freight traffic more efficient while spreading wealth to India’s rural areas.

“Geithner’s goal in the talks in India on Tuesday will be to give more prominence to U.S.-Indian relations, which have taken a back seat to Washington’s ties with China in recent years,” said Rani D. Mullen, a South Asia expert at the College of William and Mary. [Link]

So basically I can’t point to any tangible results. This was more like “Hey China, look. We are meeting with your rival before meeting with you. You should be more cooperative or we will do more business with India.” But I like the pictures.

59 thoughts on “Timothy Geithner’s India trip”

  1. It’s a mockery of democracy that Laloo Prasad Yadav is still a viable candidate after all these years.

  2. It’s a mockery of democracy that Laloo Prasad Yadav is still a viable candidate after all these years.

    some might say that this is democracy without the restraint imposed by republican virtue.

  3. razib wrote:

    Turnaround of India State Could Serve as a Model. bihar? wow. no idea.

    razib, This article provides a more balanced view of Bihar’s recent growth.

  4. This article provides a more balanced view of Bihar’s recent growth.

    i did wonder this. thanks for clearing it up 🙂

  5. What did Lee Kwan Yew say?

    “In multiracial societies, you don’t vote in accordance with your economic interests and social interests, you vote in accordance with race and religion.”

    He could’ve thrown in caste.

  6. “In multiracial societies, you don’t vote in accordance with your economic interests and social interests, you vote in accordance with race and religion.” He could’ve thrown in caste.

    Substantively it’s not that different from race. Basically non-Indians lumped all Indians into one “Indian” race and treated the actual racial distinctions among them as some other kind of social cleavage. Admittedly that’s a bit of a simplified account, but the gist is that race and cast (jati) are almost completely analogous.

  8. but the gist is that race and cast (jati) are almost completely analogous.

    there’s a lot more physical and genetic overlap between castes than between races. that means that in theory one can imagine a post-caste society as a matter of substance, since caste is much more strongly socially conditioned.