Posted on 03/22/2009 10:43:00 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
No crisis like this has a simple or single cause, but as a nation we borrowed too much and let our financial system take on irresponsible levels of risk. Those decisions have caused enormous suffering, and much of the damage has fallen on ordinary Americans and small-business owners who were careful and responsible. This is fundamentally unfair, and Americans are justifiably angry and frustrated.
The depth of public anger and the gravity of this crisis require that every policy we take be held to the most serious test: whether it gets our financial system back to the business of providing credit to working families and viable businesses, and helps prevent future crises.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
“The private sector will set prices.”
Why do we need taxpayer’s to pay for this?
In working with Congress to put in place strong conditions to prevent misuse of taxpayer assistance, we need to be very careful not to discourage those investments the economy needs to recover from recession.
The more he speaks the less the market likes it.
I think that is the way that is said,.
VERY CAREFULLY.....
The stock market is going to tank tomorrow. This is more fatuous nothingness from Tax Cheat Geithner. He looks and sounds like a weasel.
You said "the lenders" and that din't sound right to me. Am I the one that's confused???
Uh-huh. Another way to say it is that the only way to sell these assets at the price the holders want for them is at gunpoint.
OK, here’s the “plan” summarized into two lines:
The Treasury is going to be a margin lender for hedge funds, who will price the assets they buy.
The HF and the Treasury will share in the losses if the asset doesn’t perform or it was overpriced to begin with.
When we weren’t rebuilding it, we bailed out the rest of the economic world. Now the USG wants the US taxpayer to bail out and rebuild the last and biggest chunk.
“Our new Public-Private Investment Program will set up funds to provide a market for the legacy loans and securities that currently burden the financial system.”
This isn’t really the “big announcement” is it??? It’s from the Onion, right??? The one that stunk so bad they decided not to publish it?
Public-Private Investment? Is that something like a Liberal-Conservative Think Tank??? Who believes the “Private” will want anything to do with the “Public” in this cloisterpuck? Show of hands - who went to a B-School in any college or has run a popsickle stand and wants to be in business with Bawney Fwank and Chris Doddering Fool????
This is what world banks and overseas markets will wake up to??? Buckle your seatbelts...we are in for a bumpy ride...
Geithner said he needed help from the private sector...so I assume that would be the lenders...= the buyers of the distressed assets...
Robert Howe, who heads Hong Kong investment firm Geomatrix, said that markets were upbeat on the general outline of the plan and its potential to remove the overhang on the financial sector, but cautioned there was little confidence in how long-lasting the advance would prove.
“We don’t know if it’s a bear-market bounce,” Howe said.
Others market watchers said attention would shift to the details of the rescue plan, such as the mechanisms by which toxic assets would be removed from bank’s balance sheets, how much it would cost, and who would pay for it.”
Doesn’t this paragraph:
“This requires those in the private sector to remember that government assistance is a privilege, not a right. When financial institutions come to us for direct financial assistance, our government has a responsibility to ensure these funds are deployed to expand the flow of credit to the economy, not to enrich executives or shareholders. These provisions need to be designed and applied in a way that does not deter the participation by the private sector in generally available programs to stabilize the housing markets, jump-start the credit markets, and rid banks of legacy assets.”
Pretty much make sure that this happens:
“While this crisis was caused by banks taking too much risk, the danger now is that they will take too little. In working with Congress to put in place strong conditions to prevent misuse of taxpayer assistance, we need to be very careful not to discourage those investments the economy needs to recover from recession. The rule of law gives responsible entrepreneurs and investors the confidence to invest and create jobs in our nation. Our nation’s commitment to pursue economic policies that promote confidence and stability dates back to the very first secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, who first made it clear that when our government gives its word we mean it.”
I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the shell game with the guy telling you there might or might not be a pea? They haven’t followed through on anything and have only confounded the private sector from not doing the original TARP plan to trying to push through Bills of Attainder to private citizens...
Everybody else is broke.
Ok.
But still isn’t it an error to say “the private sector will set prices” when the government has the heavy hand in the risk equation?
yitbos
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