Posted on 11/21/2008 11:59:23 AM PST by WilliamReading
As bad a year as the stock market is having, Treasury Secretary Paulson is having an even worse one, according to William Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri.
The professor, who was counsel to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board during the S&L Crisis and blew the whistle on the "Keating Five" in 1989, says Paulson deserves an "F-minus" for his role in the financial crisis.
"All of his policies made [the crisis] worse," says Black, citing Paulson's:
* Pushing for more deregulation of the securities and mortgage businesses. * Failure to recognize the liquidity crisis in credit markets sooner. * Failure to act to stop foreclosures sooner. * Opposition to the government taking equity stakes in financial institutions, until very late in the crisis.
"And he gets the worst grade because as head of Treasury he's also in charge of banking and thrift regulation," Black continues, noting he "destroyed" rather than beefed up supervision. "I hope you like the consequences."
Black, author of "The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One," says there's ample reasons why the financial markets have lost confidence in the Secretary.
He also notes Paulson steered Goldman Sachs into subprime and alt-A mortgage securities before becoming Treasury Secretary in 2006. Goldman began shorting those instruments shortly after Paulson's departure, he notes.
The current crisis is "not a hundred-year flood, that suggests it's an act of God caused by random forces," Black says. "This was one cause by bad policies, the same policies that have caused prior crises."
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
At this point it looks like George W. Bush is running the economy in the same way he ran the war in Iraq.
Hank Paulson ,Paul Bremer, and George Tenet.
GWB sure can pick ‘em.
kind of high marks, he has not done that well
Yes, Paulson was a disastrous choice for Treasury Secretary. Bush has made some awful blunders in his appointments, and in his failures to clean house.
But I would read it slightly differently, I think Paulson did a lot of this on purpose, especially his sudden announcement of the bailout crisis. He did that to elect Obama, and to work for the powers behind the throne who want to wreck the economy and pick up the pieces cheap.
Bush’s mistake was not to select someone stupid for the treasury job, but but to once again select someone disloyal to him and to our country. Paulson didn’t get to be CEO of Goldman Sachs by being stupid.
Everyone makes bad picks in employees at times.
The sign of a competent manager is that he deals with the problem and doesn’t allow it to fester. Bush allows problems to fester.
Worse than that, Bush has bungled the SecTreas pick all the way from Day 1. If there is one thing that Bush has done wrong above all other mistakes, it was treating the SecTreas position as a “oh by the way” sort of pick.
Paulson, however, is in a league of incompetence all his own. This has been apparent for quite some time, but starting in September, Bush should have at least had a chat with Paulson to tell him “start getting it right or get out...”
I completely agree. Paulsons’ policies will be seen as impoverishing America for a decade. He has absolutely shredded market confidence. In many ways, had his plan actually been to have sabotaged the markets, he could hardly have acted more effectively.
“He also notes Paulson steered Goldman Sachs into subprime and alt-A mortgage securities before becoming Treasury Secretary in 2006. Goldman began shorting those instruments shortly after Paulson’s departure, he notes.”
Just the guy we want handing out evaluating toxic paper and buying it with our money borrowed from overseas!
Actually, we might be fortunate that the foreigners are making the calls now and ordered Bush and Paulson to drop the buying of toxic financial waste and instead buying bank shares.
On the dark side, since the Europeans now have special rights to look at the books of American financial institutions, but we Americans do not, they will have a heads up on what’s going down. Thank you deregulation cultists!
I think the demonizing of President Bush in 2000 has brought us to this end.
Everyone must remember that this is a GLOBAL CRISIS!
http://www.financialarmageddon.com/
That crash came in 1873 and lasted more than four years. It looks much more like our current crisis.
Paulson has been a total disaster. This tree-hugging liberal registered Republican had far too much bias towards (ultra liberal) Goldman which may have helped secure Lehman’s demise.
Makes sense. He’s been bailing out his buddies and his reputation, legacy time for all, y’know.
I know you’re not surprised.
Fox/ChickenCoop and all.
God, they must be laughing their heads off at what they’ve pulled off!
>>had his plan actually been to have sabotaged the markets
His plan had one purpose.
Save his buddies. And his own fortune.
All the rest is hogwash.
Have you ever noticed that whenever Hank Paulson shows his face on television, the stock market tanks at least 100 points?
GW was a Uniter not a divider..according to his poll numbers, he practically united the country against him (ahem)
>> Paulson deserves an “F-minus” for his role in the financial crisis.
>
>kind of high marks, he has not done that well
Ouch! (Not undeserved though.)
at first I was willing to give Paulson some slack based on the enormity of the economic problem.
But not anymore. Paulson makes Paul Bremer look like Albert Einstein in crisis management.
That’s what you get crossing the aisle handing the keys to the economy to a Democrat in an election year.
I loved how Paul Bremer used to wear cowboy boots to his Baghdad headquarters. Maybe he thought Iraq was like one big Texas ranch.
Would love to see Hank Paulson start wearing cowboy boots to Wall Street as well.
A Republican who gave to the Clinton campaign in 1992?
http://townhall.com/columnists/RobertDNovak/2007/10/01/hank_paulsons_dna
Just because you cross over to vote for McCain in a GOP primary doesn’t make you a Republican.
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