Tim Geithner is stepping down before the next fiscal fight

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will reportedly leave his post by the end of January, giving up his cabinet position just weeks before the next big debt ceiling fight heats up. Bloomberg is reporting that Geithner has let the White House know that he plans to stick to his scheduled departure date, even if the somewhat delayed financial crisis remains unresolved. Geithner, one of President Obama's original cabinet members and the only remaining member of his first key economic team, reportedly wanted to leave the government as early as 2011, but was asked to stay on until the end of Obama's first term. As the president's chief negotiator on the fiscal cliff, he was involved in almost all the recent negotiations leading up to this week's deal.

No formal announcement has been made by the White House or the Treasury Department yet, but the consensus pick for his job is Jack Lew, the current White House Chief of Staff. He's a former managing director at Citigroup, but spent most of his career in government serving several years as the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Whoever it is, the new Treasury boss will be stepping into his new job just as Congress and the administration step up to fight what could be the biggest fiscal battle in memory.