• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 3, 2010

In the crucial days around September 18, 2008, when the financial troubles were escalating -- and a number of major financial institution were on the verge of bankruptcy -- now Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, then the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, started making a list.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, reporter and columnist of The New York Times, in speaking at the 4A’s media conference, says Geithner was drawing up a list of those companies that should merge â€" Goldman Sachs and CitiCorp; CitiCorp and Wachovia; and Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan; and other combinations.

Of Geithner, Ross says, financial executives were about to give him a nickname â€" eHarmony.

Of the economy now, Ross says, “The patient has stabilized but hasn’t gone into rehab.” Ross says unfortunately not a lot has changed with Wall Street. A lot of new practices are needed to start up for things to get better.

All that means the economic recovery could be a much longer process â€" especially given the U.S. underemployment and unemployment rate.