Wall Street’s new hero, Timothy Geithner and Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are getting a dressing down on the Hill this morning. The Dow surged almost 500 points yesterday after Treasury Secretary’s announcement of the public-private program to buy-up up to $1 trillion in toxic-assets. But, it’s back to Earth for Geithner today: being questioned by Congresswoman Walters (D-CA) on the Goldman Sachs conspiracies and Congresswoman Bachman (R-MN) on what provision in the Constitution the Secretary can point to for his authority to bail-out banks is not a hero’s welcome. Oh, the hearing is supposed to be on the “Oversight of Government Intervention in AIG.” Treasury Secretary and the Fed Chairman are not letting any amount of chastising from the Congress go to waste. When criticized about the execution of the bail-outs, point to the lack of authority as the reason, and ask for more authority. Brilliant. Geithner and Bernanke want to have the authority similar to that FDIC has to take over failing banks and wind down their assets, for financial firms that aren’t classified as banks, such as AIG or hedge funds. The proposed "resolution authority" would allow the U.S. government broad discretion to provide financial assistance to such firms by making loans, purchasing obligations or assets, assuming or guaranteeing liabilities and buying an equity interest. Meanwhile, the Senate is going to take its time in considering the bill that puts a punitive tax rate on bonuses employees at firms receiving government funds get. The leadership says maybe we’ll look at it in April. AIG gets a chance to fix things by convincing more and more of its employees to return the ill-gotten bonuses in the interim, while the House stews. China sure knows how to get attention. How about a call for a new reserve currency? The Central Bank of China governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, proposed that the world abandon the dollar, and move to a new international reserve currency issued and monitored by the IMF. Stories about the proposal were splashed across front pages of all the world major newspapers. (Take that, Ben Bernanke!) The G-20 Summit should be great entertainment, between China and Russia rioting and the Europeans dragging their feet on additional stimulus measures. Our man Barack’s famous charisma will be a wild card at the proceedings. That, and the U.S.’s significant economic and political weight, of course.