guess what they call a "gaffe" in Washington?

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Geithner gaffe roils markets
Patrice Hill
An unguarded comment by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on Wednesday set off a sudden drop in the dollar and contributed to a chain of market-rocking events that included a setback in the stock market and a sharp uptick in interest rates.
Mr. Geithner appeared to lend his support to a proposal by China's central bank governor to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency with a basket of currencies that would be managed by the International Monetary Fund. In an appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Wednesday morning, Mr. Geithner raised eyebrows by saying that "we're actually quite open to that," only a day after both he and President Obama had vehemently rejected the idea and affirmed their strong support for the U.S. currency.