The New York Times’ Jackie Calmes reports that Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, will be named Treasury Secretary, perhaps as soon as Monday. In making the extremely conventional choice of Geithner, Obama passed on the yet even more conventional choice of Larry Summers. But no worries– Summers is expected to be Obama’s chief economic adviser in the the White House. And the former Clinton Treasury Secretary could become Federal Reserve chairman in 2010.

It’s hard to see how Geithner will change Henry Paulson’s Treasury Dept. given that he worked with Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke (who stays until at least 2010) on the $700 billion bailout. Giethner also presided over the New York Fed during the spectacular collapse of the primary and secondary mortgage markets. On the other hand, like Paulson, he’s always pictured as looking really serious and engaged.

Geithner is also a protégé of Robert Rubin, another former Clinton Treasury Secretary, who managed the feat of alienating labor unions from the Democratic Party. Indeed, Rubinites essentially marginalized nearly all anti-business elements within the Democratic Party (and for that matter mainstream political discourse). But the Times notes that due to the financial crisis these ideological fissures are no longer so important. What a relief.-MB

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