Since the first, dramatic interventions into the financial system by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve during the collapse of Bear Stearns a year ago, Timothy Geithner has based his approach on one underlying theory. The crisis, the former New York Fed president and now Treasury Secretary believes, is the result of the collapse of a shadow banking system that grew over the past 30 years to rival the traditional banking system in size but lacked all four of the safeguards that had been imposed after repeated collapses of the traditional system in the early part of the 20th century. Geithner, his predecessor Hank Paulson, FDIC chief Sheila Bair and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke have so far used ad hoc powers to erect two of those crucial four pillars.
