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An Op-Ed in the New York Times is asking the question “has Obama’s Katrina moment arrived?” They are referring to the AIG bonuses and the disastrous bailout of Wall St. and our banks. We have seen in the past few weeks that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is not ready for prime time – nor are most of Obama’s economic team, including Larry Summers. Their collective responses to the AIG bonus scandal have been legalese, not action.
Here are a few excerpts from the New York Times Op-Ed:
To get ahead of the anger, Obama must do what he has repeatedly promised but not always done: make everything about his economic policies transparent and hold every player accountable. His administration must start actually answering the questions that officials like Geithner and Summers routinely duck.
Inquiring Americans have the right to know why it took six months for us to learn (some of) what A.I.G. did with our money. We need to understand why some of that money was used to bail out foreign banks. And why Goldman, which declared that its potential losses with A.I.G. were “immaterial,” nonetheless got the largest-known A.I.G. handout of taxpayers’ cash ($12.9 billion) while also receiving a TARP bailout. We need to be told why retention bonuses went to some 50 bankers who not only were in the toxic A.I.G. unit but who left despite the “retention” jackpots. We must be told why taxpayers have so little control of the bailed-out financial institutions that we now own some or most of. And where are the M.R.I.’s from those “stress tests” the Treasury Department is giving those banks?
You would think that Obama should be considering booting the lame Geithner, but “embattled Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner’s job is safe and the subject of resignation has not come up in his conversations with President Obama despite calls from some in Congress for Geithner to step down, the president said in an interview to be broadcast tonight on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” according to the Washington Post.
I don’t know how most folks feel about this, but Geithner is starting to look like Obama’s Mike Brown. You’re doing a great job Timmy!” Barf…
As much as I love Frank Rich, I think the other editorial by Thomas Friedman makes a good point; “If you want to guarantee that America becomes a mediocre nation, then just keep vilifying every public figure struggling to find a way out of this crisis who stumbles once-like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner or A.I.G.’s $1-a-year fill-in C.E.O. Ed Liddy-and you’ll ensure that no capable person enlists in government. …….. And you will ensure that we’ll never get out of this banking crisis, because the solution depends on getting private money funds to team up with the government to buy up toxic assets-and fund managers are growing terrified of any collaboration with government.”
I think this is an ENORMOUSLY complicated problem and some of the people trying to “fix-it” were complicit in creating it, but that’s the way it is. We need to grow-up and stop demanding instant and perfect solutions, because the REALITY is, is that there isn’t any road map, there will be mistakes, it will be expensive, it will be risky and we better hope they can stabilize this MESS or we are going down.
Just in case; buy gold.
The first loyalty of the clique of finacial geniuses (who created this mess) who jump back and forth between Wall Street and government agencies is to each other – forget political parties or national interest. Giving these characters blank checks was asking for abuse. And we got it.
All bonus’s should be paid in “toxic assets” at book value.
These high-brow crooks should receive all their pay in the products they sold to the public and pension funds. If they earn 600,000 then they get a deed of trust written for 600,000 on a piece of real estate with a current value of 60,000. Hey maybe the high-brows can collect on it.