Two Reasons Why Tim Geithner Is Pessimistic About U.S. Politics

Now that 'Stress Test', Tim Geithner's book on the financial crisis, is out the 'qualified' question keeps coming up over and over again.

"I would say I was unqualified," said Geithner in a meeting with journalists last week, "though in a relative sense more qualified than most people."

This answer is something we should all be worried about.

Geithner said that the pool of people working in government who could even approach"prepared-for-disaster" is getting smaller and smaller. It's a dark thought - the idea that we're running of Americans that know how to run the country - and there are two reasons why Geithner says the pool is shrinking.

The first is a basic lack of interest. There were moments after Kennedy, Regan, and to a lesser extent Obama's elections that got people excited about serving in government again - but it hasn't been enough.

The second reason is our political system. People who are interested in serving "have to be willing to put up with huge uncertainty in confirmation," said Geithner.

"You need a Congress that can do stuff... and money plays too big a role in our system now."

Sounds like a problem we've heard of before.