Amid crisis, Geithner emerges most powerful

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New York: The global economic turmoil is changing the composition of the power league in the finance business, with treasury secretary-in waiting Timothy Geithner emerging as one of the most influential persons as Citi CEO Vikram Pandit is sliding in the pecking order.

Interestingly, both of them have Indian connections—Pandit was born in India and Geithner spent part of his growing years and had his elementary eduction in the country.

Despite the ravaging crisis which has even seen the country’s economy shrink 0.5% in the third quarter, US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and treasury secretary Henry Paulson still remain personalities whose power is on the rise, according to US publication Conde Naste Portfolio.

In its online edition, the magazine has listed 27 persons in the nation’s finance business who have seen their influence either growing or waning. Five people including bankrupt Lehman Brothers’ former chief executive Dick Fuld are among those whom the list described as “flaming out” in the power league.

The publication noted that five top guns including Fuld have almost lost their influence altogether.

Apart from Fuld, who is described as “Hollywood-worthy villain of the crisis,” others include former chief executive of battered American International Group Hank Greenberg, earlier head of Bear Stearns Jimmy Cayne and Countrywide Financial’s chief Angelo Mozilo.

Another person on the list is Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Christopher Cox, but he seems to be slowly clawing back into influence. “The man who should have seen it coming now has a shot at redemption,” the publication noted.