More Fallout from the Geithner Plan – And It Only Gets Worse
If you thought Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism was upset on Tuesday over Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s bank rescue plan – recall the word “fiasco” was used – it’s nothing compared to today’s further reflections.
From Naked Capitalism:
“„As we, and increasingly others, have said, the Obama economic team is every bit as captive to Wall Street’s interests as the Bushies were. The differences increasingly look stylistic, not substantive.
“„Treasury Secretary Geithner presented today what in essence was a plan to come up with a plan. I now understand why he is so loath to have government run banks. He presumably sees himself as an elite bureaucrat, as his glittering resume attests. Yet the man has a deadline to come up with a proposal, yet puts off presenting it twice (the “oh he has to work on the stimulus bill” is as close to “the dog ate my homework” as I have ever seen in adult life). What he served up as an initiative is weeks to months, depending on the item, away from being operational (if even then; the public-private asset purchase program will either not see the light of day, or be far narrower and smaller than what is needed).
I also find this part interesting:
“„And in case you think I am being unfair, yesterday I got an e-mail from a political consultant who got a report on the Senate Banking Committee briefing by the Treasury the night before the announcement. No briefing books, no documents. He deemed it to be no plan. That assessment was confirmed today by a participant at the session, who said that the details were so thin that one staffer asked, “So what, exactly, is the plan?” and repeated questions from one persistent Senator got “absolutely no answers”
It’s one thing to put together a bad plan; it’s another thing altogether to come up with something that’s incoherent and incomplete. What happened to smart as the new cool? Why did the Obama people waste so much political capital on this guy? People might forgive forgetting to pay your taxes – noticed I said “might” – but it’s hard to relate to someone hired to come up with a plan, who doesn’t really put the plan together, and then moves forward with announcing it anyway. Can’t wait to see that foreclosure help supposedly coming up next!
Geithner deserves the smackdown he’s getting. He’s supposed to be a big finance hot shot – and this is the best he can do? Every second-grader knows that if you don’t do your homework, your teacher is going to figure it out. If Geithner represents the Wall Street elite, it’s little wonder our financial system is sinking fast.
