Of the 15 key Treasury Department positions that require Senate confirmation, only one has been filled. Stuart Levey, a leftover from the previous administration, who as under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, is not central to the crisis management however. Unemployment figures which revealed Friday that 651,000 jobs were lost in February, showed the recession is running ever deeper, but Geithner, who started work in late January, has no deputy secretary, no under secretaries for international affairs and no deputy under secretaries. From the U.S. Department of the Treasury website: "The Secretary of the Treasury is the principal economic advisor to the President and plays a critical role in policy-making by bringing an economic and government financial policy perspective to issues facing the government. The Secretary is responsible for formulating and recommending domestic and international financial, economic, and tax policy, participating in the formulation of broad fiscal policies that have general significance for the economy, and managing the public debt. The Secretary oversees the activities of the Department in carrying out its major law enforcement responsibilities; in serving as the financial agent for the United States Government; and in manufacturing coins and currency. "The Chief Financial Officer of the government, the Secretary serves as Chairman Pro Tempore of the President's Economic Policy Council, Chairman of the Boards and Managing Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds, and as U.S. Governor of the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development." The Secretary along with the Treasurer (Anna Escobedo Cabral from the Bush administration) must sign Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender. The Secretary also manages the United States Emergency Economic Stabilization fund. The current Secretary of the Treasury is Timothy Geithner. If memory serves me correct, it has been approximatlely 48 days since this new administration has taken office. Basically our Treasury Secretary is all alone. Those that have been asked have shyed away or respectfully declined. With the serious economic times we are facing, I would think this would be the one office that should have been fully staffed the first day. The department made its own news Sunday, filling three of the top positions under Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Alan Krueger was named assistant secretary for economic policy; Davis Cohen was chosen as assistant secretary in the office of terrorism and financial intelligence, and Kim Wallace was named assistant secretary for legislative affairs. The announcements addressed growing concerns that even as the Treasury has worked furiously to craft bank bailouts over its first six weeks, the department still had left top positions unfilled. http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/08/business/shelby.php