Questions are arising as to the whereabouts of our Treasury Secretary. There’s been one known sighting to rollout the planned rollout of the banking rescue’s second act. That event missed the target for demonstrating incisive action, responsive to the truth of what’s ailing banks (their insolvent) and did much to incite questions about his playbook and leadership. And while it’s only been a month in office, there were the four months before that when he was a direct part of the triumvirate that was overseeing the US response to the initial act of banking’s insolvency.

A friend tells me the White House is playing a chess game. They are making calculated and methodical public disclosures that are part of a larger design that will be revealed to us all in the ensuing weeks. I could not go along with that view. I countered that if they believed themselves in a chess match and intended to win, you would not make moves with your bishops and your queen that will get them taken.

Issuing a vague banking rescue plan that was a default strategy because your primary one blew up 48 hours before its intended release and a DOA trillion dollar stim_u_less spend that has a good chance to dilute the dollar’s value significantly but no more than luck’s chance to ignite economic expansion are hanging your queen and her bishops out to dry. The check mate that follows is the one you hear, not the one you say.

The oddest part of the new administration’s response to the banks’ insolvency is the absence of public leadership on the subject. The Treasury Secretary is MIA at a time when it’s critical for him to be the face of financial reconstruction and leading the charge. The banks and now the insurers twist in the wind, losing value by the moment. The private money sources that will be critical to any recovery and reform of US banking want nothing to do with the institutions because there is such a vacuum from government leadership re: their fate.

Who’s in charge? Is it the Treasury Secretary? Larry Summers? (heaven help us) And where’s Paul Volcker? He is a former Fed Chair who has experience leading the nation through severe economic crisis (I understand Volcker and Summers are at odds). The silence is striking.