"Terribly hard" says Geithner?

The Secretary of the Treasury said today that it would be "terribly hard" to separate out the riskiest credit default swap trades from other transactions. While wanting to be a supporter, this statement just suggests that if the job is too hard, he should resign. With $60 billion of CDS positions against $2 billion of issued securities in the subprime market, how "hard" is it to identify the great majority of naked speculative trades. He said, "My own sense is that banning naked credit default swaps is not necessary and wouldn't help fundamentally. It's too hard to distinguish what's a legitimate hedge that has some economic value from what people might just feel is a speculative bet on some future outcome".

"MIGHT JUST FEEL"? To say that Geithner has a difficult task is an understatement. When an obvious need, however, is described as too hard, it makes one wonder if he is up to it. I hate to agree with his generic detractors on this, but for totally different reasons I do.