How hard is it for the Fed to find qualified staff?

Well, this post on Mr Setser's blog pretty much sums it up:

babar responds:
if i were in any way qualified to work for the US treasury, i would go hire an illegal nanny for my kid TODAY.

Funny, sure. But this attitude scares me.

Recall this news from a week or so ago: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123629285769044959.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

WASHINGTON -- Two candidates for top jobs at the Treasury have withdrawn their names from consideration, complicating efforts by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to staff his department at a time of economic crisis, according to people familiar with the matter.
Annette Nazareth, who was expected to be tapped as deputy Treasury secretary, and Caroline Atkinson, who was being considered to oversee international affairs, have both taken their names out of the running, these people said. Ms. Atkinson's name was withdrawn weeks ago and Ms. Nazareth withdrew several days ago.

It seems that no one who has a choice wants the seemingly thankless task of being subjected to the delights of obsessive and mindless public scrutiny of one's background and then working for peanuts 22 hours a day for infinity in order to solve a mammoth crisis of historic proportions which may be far too big for the US Treasury to handle by itself anyway....

And while Babar is indeed funny, this is really becoming a gigantic problem: the Government is way understaffed and outgunned here. At a moment in time when we need all hands on board as never in this nation's history, a vast majority of financial experts is sitting this one out.

This worries me more each and every day. Obama's got a truly first-rate senior economic staff and the best of outside council. But this massive, epic crisis needs experts at every level of government - especially at the day-to-day level of Treasury staff - and they are simply not showing up...