Geithner: 'I Never Had a Real Job.'

I find that the charge that — the myth that I worked in Wall Street all my life, somewhat amusing... But it is part of a narrative that hardened. People came to view the judgments we were making through the prism of a myth … it's actually very damaging. It’s completely false, of course, and it, you know, should have been corrected a long time ago.

Geithner has worked in government his whole life. Before becoming Treasury secretary, he was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which is a government job but is closely associated with Wall Street. The New York Fed president is selected by a board of private sector bankers and other private sector officials but has to be approved by the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. Almost all of the New York Fed’s profits get turned over to the U.S. government.