Geithner: I Won’t Stay if Obama is Re-Elected

Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner said Wednesday he won't serve in a second Obama Administration because he doesn't expect to be invited to continue in office.

The president is not going to ask me to stay on, Geithner told Bloomberg TV. I'm confident he'll be president ... but he's going to have the privilege of having another secretary of the treasury.

Geithner, who was president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank until he was appointed to his current post in 2009, didn't indicate what he will do next.

The treasury secretary, 50, had previously indicated he would leave the administration but was asked to stay on last fall during discussions with Congress about extending the U.S. debt limit and planning future budgets.

A Democrat, Geithner had been a career diplomat and civil servant, never serving in a Wall Street investment bank, unlike many of his predecessors. He succeeded Henry Paulson, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs, who had been the last treasury secretary for President George W. Bush.

Geithner is scheduled to attend the financial conference in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.

President Obama's Cabinet has been unusually stable. Since 2009, only two secretaries have resigned, Robert Gates at Defense, who was originally appointed by Bush but was asked to stay on, and Gary Locke at Commerce, who was named Ambassador to China last year upon the resignation of Amb. Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor who returned home to run as a Republican candidate for President. Huntsman ended his campaign this month.

Bush had three Treasury secretaries. Before Paulson, there was former railroad executive John Snow who succeeded the first, Paul O'Neill, CEO of Alcoa.