On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 11:41 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> <http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/rant-on-the-tarp-overhaul/>
>
> Rant on the TARP overhaul
>
> Tomorrow will bring the unveiling of the Obama administration's overhaul of
> the Henry "Hank" Paulson bank bailout, the Troubled Asset Relief Program
> (TARP). [Apply for funds here.] From the leaks emerging, it looks like a
> significant portion of the scheme will amount to this: the government will
> lend money to hedge funds and the like at subsidized rates to buy toxic
> assets - and the gov will guarantee the investors against losses. From the
> hedgies point of view, it's all reward, no risk. What the public gets out of
> this is impossible to specify, aside from the risk of massive losses.
>
> I hope this isn't really what will emerge. But if it is, the Obama
> administration will have broken new ground in awfulness. The same formula
> that brought us this mess, an indulgent government encouraging reckless
> operators playing with other people's money, will be applied towards solving
> it. It makes no damned sense.
>
> Well, maybe it does in the most cynical way. Hedge funders like Chicago's
> Kenneth Griffin wrote Obama big checks during the campaign season. (For some
> details, see here and here.) Obama's top economic advisor, Larry Summers,
> worked for a hedge fund after he got fired from Harvard. And no doubt
> Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner would like a multimillion dollar job on Wall
> Street after he leaves public service, just like Robert Rubin did at
> Citigroup after engineering the repeal of Glass-Steagall.
>
> Can things really be this bad? We report; you decide.
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>