Photograph by Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Jacob “Jack” Lew, U.S. treasury secretary, arrives to attend the Group of Seven (G-7) finance ministers and central bank governors meeting at Hartwell House in Aylesbury, U.K., on May 10, 2013.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew took his plea for stronger global economic growth to a British country house hotel where Louis XVIII, the exiled king of France, stayed for five years.

Lew is urging Group of Seven finance ministers to emphasize growth over austerity and is facing some resistance. The U.S. position is fostering ambiguity just as the G-7 should be recommitting to debt reduction plans, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said today.

Unlike Group of 20 meetings, which are larger and normally held in cities, this session is taking place at Hartwell House & Spa at Buckinghamshire near the town of Aylesbury, in an area of rolling green hills and grazing cows, about 45 miles northwest of London.

Lew and other top finance officials are staying at the Hartwell. The Hartwell’s website says the house dates back almost 1,000 years to the reign of Edward the Confessor and that Louis XVIII was there from 1809 to 1814.

Most U.S. Treasury officials are lodging at a Holiday Inn about five miles away. Mark Sobel, a deputy assistant secretary and negotiator for the Treasury, was spotted leaving the hotel this morning, wearing a suit and lugging his backpack over his shoulder. (Read Bloomberg’s profile of Sobel, Treasury’s “bad cop,” here.)

Journalists are covering the event mainly from a white tent on the Hartwell grounds. Most of the announcements for the press from the British organizers have to do with the schedule for a shuttle bus running between Hartwell and the Haddenham and Thame Parkway rail station about 10 minutes away.

Original post is Lew Urges G-7 to Focus on Growth by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, left, and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein leave the White House after they and 13 other bank heads met with President Barack Obama on March 27, 2009 in Washington, DC.

President Barack Obama will meet with the heads of the world’s biggest banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Lloyd C. Blankfein and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon, seeking to strengthen ties that have been strained by new U.S. curbs on fees and trading.

The NTSB begins public meetings on the Boeing 787 lithium battery fire.

In the Senate, a cloture vote will determine whether lawmakers consider a bill to expand the background checks on gun purchases.

Bloomberg View Columnist Amity Shlaes joins a Cato Institute discussion on tax reform under President Calvin Coolidge.

Speaking of taxes, eliminating most deductions, lowering overall tax rates would be a “good idea,” voters say 47 percent to 35 percent, while 55 percent say the rich pay less than their fair share, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Almost two-thirds of American voters have someone else prepare their tax return.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Acting OMB Director Jeffrey Zients head to Capitol Hill to sell the Obama administration’s budget to hearings of House and Senate committees, while the House Appropriations panel hears from Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank on her agency’s spending plans.

The House Armed Services Committee hears from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey on the Pentagon’s budget request. The House Select Intelligence Committee holds a hearing on threats to the U.S. with witnesses including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director Robert Mueller. The Atlantic Council holds a discussion of the future of the Air Force, with topics including budget cuts, competitor nations and new technologies.

A House Energy and Commerce panel, chaired by Rep. John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican, holds a hearing on the Coal Ash Recycling and Oversight Act of 2013 as the Senate Environment Committee hears from EPA head nominee Gina McCarthy at her confirmation hearing. NOAA holds a conference call on its Drought Task Force.

The rebound in homebuilding after a six-year slump should generate as many as 500,000 jobs this year and 700,000 in 2014, including related services, estimates Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial. Price is the top forecaster of employment over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The SEC’s Dodd-Frank Investor Advisory Committee meets today. A Senate Banking panel holds a hearing on the role of regulators and consultants in the scrapped multibillion dollar settlement over mishandled foreclosures. A House Financial Services panel on capital markets holds a hearing on derivatives provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Washington International Trade Association holds the third in a four-part series of discussions on Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, this one on U.S. priorities and objectives. Bloomberg Government’s Robert Litan and Navigant Economics Managing Director Hal Singer discuss how FCC policies affect investment in telecommunications at ITIF.

And this evening, filmmakers Ken Burns and David McMahon discuss their film “The Central Park Five” after a screening at the National Press Club.

Original post is Washington Daybook: Banks, Budgets and Guns by Political Capital.

Photograph by Georges Gobet/AFP via Getty Images

EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy, right, and States Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew arrive to give a press conference following a working session on April 8, 2013 at the EU Headquarters in Brussels.

Call it diplomatic speed-dating.

Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, on his first trip to Europe since taking office five weeks ago, is getting to know a lot of the region’s top economic officials very quickly.

Lew arrived in Brussels this morning for meetings in succession with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, EU financial services chief Michel Barnier and EU President Herman Van Rompuy. Each of those sessions was scheduled for 45 minutes, with no more than 10 minutes between them.

After the Treasury Department released the original schedule, it added another meeting, also in Brussels, with Italian Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli for this afternoon. That’s before a late afternoon flight to Frankfurt to see European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. Lew then travels tonight to Berlin, where he’ll meet tomorrow with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. The trip ends tomorrow in Paris in a visit with French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici.

Though Lew has talked on the phone with his European counterparts over the past several weeks, this trip is his first European immersion course. It will end abruptly within hours of Lew’s return to Washington tomorrow night: The following morning, April 10, President Barack Obama sends his overdue fiscal 2014 budget to Congress. Lew, Obama’s former White House budget chief, will be defending it before Congress on April 11.

Original post is Lew in Europe: Call Me Jack by Political Capital.

Photograph by Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Timothy Geithner and his wife Carole Sonnenfeld Geithner, attend the U.S. presidential inauguration in Washington on Jan. 21, 2013.

Updated March 22 at 1:30 pm:

It takes a Treasury secretary to turn a good investment.

Former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is looking for a modest return on his Bethesda, Maryland, home.

Geithner and his wife Carole bought the 2,537 square foot house in 2009 for $950,00 and have listed it for $995,000.

Bloomberg’s  John Gittelsohn reported today that there is a contract on the place, after jut a week of listing.

Here’s a virtual tour of the place. 

Geithner, who finished his term as  Treasury secretary in January, has found a buyer for his house, under contract now with some contingencies, but isn’t dependent on a buyer selling a current house to close the deal, according to the Web-site of brokerage Redfin Corp. It was listed March 14.

That would make it a post-bubble purchase that has held up fairly well — though only in  economically isolated enclaves like suburban Washington does 2,500 square feet fetch close to $1 million.

The rambler-style home has four bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The kitchen has had some upgrades since its 1954 construction.

“No war rooms for planning world domination that we could find, but there is a deck overlooking a large backyard,” Curbed.com notes.

Geithner has been replaced by Treasury Secretary Jacob (Jack) Lew., who already worked at the White House, his housing needs unchanged.

Original post is Geithner’s Profit: Asking for $45,000 — Update: Contract by Political Capital.

Photograph by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Senior White House Advisor David Plouffe, left, Sen. John Kerry, center, and White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew board Air Force One in this file photo.

Newly seated Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Secretary of State John Kerry are bound for China.

Lew, next week.

Kerry, in coming weeks.

President Barack Obama let Chinese President Xi Jinping know that today during a phone call “to congratulate him on his new position and to discuss the future of the U.S.-China relationship,” according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

“The president underscored his firm commitment to increasing practical cooperation to address Asia’s and the world’s most pressing economic and security challenges,” Carney said in a statement issued after the call. “Both leaders agreed on the value of regular high-level engagement to expand cooperation and coordination. ”

Obama also “highlighted the threat to the United States, its allies, and the region from North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and stressed the need for close coordination with China to ensure North Korea meets its… commitments” to nuclear disarmament. Obama, too, “highlighted the importance of addressing cyber-security threats, which represent a shared challenge.”

The two also agreed to talk frequently and directly.

Original post is Lew, Kerry Head to China Soon by Political Capital.

Photograph by Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

President Barack Obama walks with Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, right, as they leave the Gridiron Dinner through a loading area at a hotel in Washington, on March 9, 2013.

President Barack Obama, wearing white tie and tails at Washington’s premiere show of political satire, made light of budget cuts consuming the capital.

“Because of sequester, they cut my tails,” Obama said at the head table of the Gridiron Club’s annual dinner last night, opening with an allusion to the budget sequestration he has ordered. “My joke writers have been placed on furlough.”

This didn’t stop the president from making fun of his new Treasury secretary, Jacob Lew, who replaced Timothy Geithner.

“Jack is so low-key, he makes Tim Geithner look like Tom Cruise,” the president said.

It didn’t stop him from making fun of Secretary of State John Kerry, who has replaced Hillary Clinton.

“Let’s face it, Hillary is a tough act to follow,” Obama said, adding of Kerry: “Frankly, though, I think it’s time for him to stop showing up for work in pant suits.”

And it certainly left no protection for Vice President Joe Biden in Obama’s comedic script for a room full of journalists and government leaders attending the annual Washington ritual.

“His age is an issue,” Obama said of Biden, a potential candidate for higher office. “I had to take Joe aside and say, `Joe, let’s face it, you are way too young to be the Pope.”’

Yet, judging from the laughter in the Renaissance Hotel ballroom, the night belonged to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican who was widely ridiculed for a lackluster televised response to Obama’s first State of the Union address to Congress and the nation as president in 2009.

Jindal thanked the Gridiron Club for offering him this opportunity “to try to be funny on purpose.”

“They say this is a place where you can come and tell jokes about the president, poke fun at yourself, set political ambition aside and just generally say anything you want,” Jindal, a supporter of Republican Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign for president, said in his stand-up routine — “kind of like the Romney campaign.”

“Now some people have asked me if I intend to run for president in 2016,” said Jindal, who went on to name the first of the presidential nominating contests. “I have no plans to run. I’ve made that clear over and over again,” he said — “in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.”

“I mean, come on, what chance does a skinny guy with a dark complexion and a funny name have?” asked Jindal, who was born of Indian immigrants and stood two seats from Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, as he delivered his monologue. “The truth is, I am too skinny to run. At least that’s what my friend, Chris Christie, keeps telling me,” Jindal said of the heavyset New Jersey governor.

“Speaking of brown, I was hoping to see my good friend, John Boehner, here tonight,” Jindal said of the U.S. House speaker from Ohio. “We actually go to the same tanning salon.”

Jindal paused to take a sip of water, explaining he was “getting really dry up here” — with a sight gag making fun of a pause for water that Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida took in this year’s response to the State of the Union.

Jindal even poked fun at the name of the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus: “At least I had the foresight at the age of four to change my name to Bobby.”

Obama, too, had some fun at Rubio’s expense, pausing only briefly for a water break and announcing; “That, Marco Rubio, is how you take a sip of water.”

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, delivering the Democratic Party’s jokes, offered the audience an allusion to the inaugural ceremony for Obama’s second term in which the singer Beyonce mouthed the words to the national anthem.

“Did anyone else notice that Bobby Jindal lip-synched his entire remarks?” Klobuchar asked.

Klobuchar also joked about Obama’s first debate with Romney during the 2012 campaign, in which polls found viewers crediting Romney with an advantage over the president.

“I know one thing,” Klobuchar said. “I prepared more for this speech than the president did for his first debate.”

The Gridiron Club, marking its 128th year, is the oldest organization of journalists in Washington, with membership by in invitation. The private conclave roasts public officials at an annual white-tie dinner in Washington, with the songs of its satirical skits accompanied by U.S. Marine Band.

While every American president since 1885 except Grover Cleveland has attended the Gridiron, this was only the second appearance for Obama as president. He last appeared in 2011.

The night featured repeated jokes about journalist Bob Woodward’s telephone and e-mail encounter with an Obama aide who suggested Woodward would regret what he was reporting about the president. Woodward, of the Washington Post, was one of the reporters whose reporting about the Watergate scandal in the 1970′s led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

“Can anyone tell me when an administration has ever regretted picking a fight with Bob Woodward?” Obama asked. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

The first lady was not in attendance at the Gridiron dinner, though the audience could assume the president was speaking of her as he delivered one of his lines.

`I’m sure that you’ve noticed that there’s somebody very special in my life who is missing tonight, somebody who has always got my back, stands with me no matter what and gives me hope no matter how dark things seem,” said Obama, proceeding to name a New York Times columnist and statistical analyst who predicted the president’s re-election in November.

“So tonight, I want to publicly thank my rock, my foundation,” Obama said. “Thank you, Nate Silver.”

Original post is Obama’s Gridiron: Jindal’s Night by Political Capital.

As Jack Lew prepares to take over the Treasury Department, Tim Geithner is moving ahead with post-government plans.

Geithner, who left the Treasury in January, will hold a series of seminars on the 2008 financial crisis at U.S. universities starting in early March, according to a spokeswoman for the former secretary. The sessions will be held over the next year at five to 10 schools, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University and Princeton University.

The seminars, focusing on research to help prevent crises and how to respond to them, will be closed to the press and done for no fee.

Geithner, 51, plans to write a book about the U.S. response to the crisis and his decision-making role at the Treasury the last four years and as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2003 to 2009. He has also joined the Council on Foreign Relations as a distinguished fellow.

Lew, President Barack Obama’s choice to succeed Geithner, won confirmation approval in the Senate Finance Committee yesterday and could get a vote in full chamber as early as today.

Original post is Geithner Takes Financial Crisis on Campus Tour as Lew Takes Treasury by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Jack Lew, U.S. treasury secretary nominee and White House chief of staff, sits in the office of Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, in Washington, on Jan. 23, 2013.

President Obama heads to Arden, North Carolina, today to further his calls for raising the federal minimum wage and taking other steps to bolster the middle class in his State of the Union address.

The president used last night’s speech to stake out his vision for an expanded government role in addressing economic inequality, a central theme of his re-election campaign and his inaugural address. Republicans in Washington will today describe their skepticism in detail.  House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will give their reactions to Obama’s speech at a media availability immediately after a Republican Conference meeting.

Obama and congressional Republicans remain at an impasse in negotiations to head off $1.2 trillion in automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to begin taking effect on March 1.

The House Armed Services Committee holds a hearing on the consequences of sequestration on defense, while the House Budget Committee hears from Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf and the Senate Budget Committee looks at the effects of budget decisions on communities.

The Senate Finance Committee hears Jack Lew, Obama’s nominee as Treasury secretary, at a confirmation hearing today. The House Financial Services Committee meets to discuss a November report to Congress that revealed the Federal Housing Administration may need taxpayer bailout. Sen. Elizabeth Warren holds a news conference to urge confirmation of Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.

Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank will gives update on Obama’s cybersecurity policies, while Education Secretary Arne Duncan outlines the administration’s second-term agenda for higher education at Rural Community College Day.

Original post is Washington Daybook: Lew’s Hearing by Political Capital.

Photograph by Pete Souza/The White House via Getty Images

President Barack Obama meets with Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough, right, and speechwriter Ben Rhodes on Air Force One in this June 4, 2009 file photo on route to Cairo, Egypt.

First came Rahm Emanuel. Then Bill Daley. Lastly Jack Lew.

The Chicago crew and the seasoned Washington hand who served as President Barack Obama’s chiefs of staff for his first term have yielded to another creature of Capitol Hill, Denis McDonough, who has been serving Obama as deputy national security adviser.

Obama plans to name McDonough as chief of staff today, at a noon-hour appearance in the East Room of the White House, according to an administration official. He is succeeding Lew, whom Obama has nominated to serve as Treasury secretary.

Obama also is naming Rob Nabors, his legislative liaison, as deputy chief of staff. And Tony Blinken will replace McDonough at the National Security Council.

Other moves today:

•  Danielle Gray, Cabinet secretary

• Katy Kale,  assistant to the president for management and administration

• Lisa Monaco, deputy national security adviser for homeland security

• Jennifer Palmieri, communications director

• Dan Pfeiffer, senior adviser

• Miguel Rodriguez,  director of legislative affairs

• David Simas, deputy senior adviser for communications and strategy

Roger Runningen reported the story today for Bloomberg News, and Bloomberg’s Hans Nichols has reported for some time that McDonough would most likely take one of the hardest jobs in Washington.

Original post is Obama’s New Chief of Staff Today — That and More Moves by Political Capital.

Photograph by Pete Souza/White House

The White House Honey Ale

President Barack Obama said this week that he likes “a good party.”

He went looking for a going-away party next door today at Treasury, where Secretary Tim Geithner is preparing to step down.

At about 4 pm Washington time, Obama walked across the driveway between the East Wing of the White House and the Treasury Department, preceded by his nominee for Geithner’s replacement, White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew, and joined by a crowd of other close advisers.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were attending an event honoring Geithner, joined there by his family and friends.

The White House crew didn’t stay long, leaving at about 4:50 pm.

The in-town press pool posed a question to the president on the way home: You like a good party?

(He said he does, at the last press conference of his first term earlier this week, when asked why he doesn’t socialize more.)

“They didn’t serve any alcohol,” Obama replied today with a wide grin. “Still on a budget.”

And this, at a White House that brews its own beer.

Original post is Obama’s Alcohol-Free Treasury Party by Political Capital.