Geithner’s views on a variety of fronts remain a mystery. A career civil servant , he’s had a front seat to the current financial rescue efforts but not the tight control he’ll wield as treasury secretary. While he’s written and spoken widely about the key issue of financial regulatory reform, his views on fiscal policy, home foreclosures, and trade, among myriad other economic issues, are not well known.

“I always worry about somebody who has spent his whole life at the Federal Reserve,” said Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, stressing the need for a treasury secretary to have nongovernment experience. “I just don’t know him.”