Posted on 04/14/2010 12:11:16 PM PDT by mlocher
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday it is a "critical moment" for a financial regulatory overhaul and said he believed a legislative agreement was close.
Geithner, briefing reporters at the White House after President Barack Obama met congressional leaders, also said the U.S. economy was "recovering faster than expected" and emerging from recession faster than other global economies.
Geithner spoke mostly about the financial regulation debate. "I think it's a critical moment for reform, a promising moment, a lot of hard work, a lot of progress," he said.
Rejecting a key Republican argument, Geithner said Obama would not support a financial regulatory bill that creates the risk of perpetual bailouts. He said the administration would continue to listen to Republican ideas.
He said any bill "must bring derivatives out of the dark."
Today, Geithner is discussing bank regulation -- something the Fed has control of. Also today, Bernanke met with Congress and warned that the National Debt would equal the US GDP by end of the decade. Why is Geithner, Secretary of Treasury, not telling Congress this information? Isn't it his job to keep watch of the US finances?
Rules? Geithner wants RULES? He certainly didn’t obey RULES when he failed to pay his taxes for ever-so-many years. Was it 7 years that Turbo Tax gave him the wrong answer?
Dear little Timmy, that is because YOU and Obama are spending taxpayer money faster than expected. And still no jobs you frikin' Bozo!
Looking at the financial system and saying we need more rules is like paging through the Oxford English Dictionary and calling for “More words!”
Excellent analogy!
The critical item here is to have the banks write their own regulations then have them proffered by Chris Dodd under the guise of “reform” so the Dems appear to be the saviors of the financial system. This is exactly what’s happening. There are no enforcement entities within the US goveernment that will take any action against the banks unless you are talking about the FDIC closing neighborhood punk banks.
When those banks have been closed, they have universally been found to have been looted. Every one. Whereas the FDIC and OTS have been charged by law with PCA (prompt, corrective action) such that the FDIC should not take any losses of size, the assets held by these banks have without exception liquidated at 50% to 70% of face value. The difference is gleefully shoved right into the FDIC. This means the execs of these banks have falsified their balance sheets in some cases for years. Yet we’ve seen no perp walks to date other than Madoff, which is a different area of law. Not one. In several cases, the most mediocre and incompetent “hey, there’s nothing wrong here” bank examiners left over from the RTC & the S&L crisis have been re-appointed to posts within these supervisory entities. Incomprehensible rewarding of pure incompetence under the guise of “experience”.
During the S&L crisis there were over 1,000 successful prosecutions of bank executives, most of whom served hard time. This time? With the possible exception of the guy who had the bank in Antigua, none, zero. Oh, but there’s the perpetual circus of the 6-member finger pointing hot potato squad that never resolves anywhere. “It’s the crooked borrowers, no it’s the ratings agencies, no, it’s the greedy mortgage brokers, no, it’s the exec compensation structure of Fannie Mae, no, it’s the greedy banks, no, it’s the unregulated CDS swaps”. Hearings are held, new regulations are drawn up by the banks themselves with their brand new back-door exits built in, and the Chris Dodds of the world crow about how much they’ve done to fix things. It is a complete charade. The greatest looting in the history of mankind will now be institutionalized. Hey, we got that going for us.
People should watch some YouTube videos with Bill Black, chief investigator/prosecutor during the S&L crisis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixo9WO9UV5g
Yeah, I know, Alex Jones. Pay attention to Bill Black. This is among the best explanations of exactly what went wrong and exactly who has successfully gamed the system.
If you want to avoid another financial meltdown incarcerate Barney Frank and Criss Dodd.
“it is a “critical moment” for a financial regulatory overhaul”
So Obama and Timmy can take over any company that they wish on the flimsiest of grounds. With no court oversight to boot.
Basically, due process is being done away with. Free markets provide the best due process that has ever existed.
there will be one bank....if obama has his way....and all your money, all your cards, all your loans....will be in that bank...the gov will own you....
That is a definite outcome if the Dodd bill passes. It gives dictatorial power to the Sec'y of Treasury.
Good post.
...”the U.S. economy was “recovering faster than expected” and emerging from recession faster than other global economies. “
This is NOT AT ALL what I’ve been hearing.
"Other global economies" probably equates to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. China, much of Asia and parts of Latin America are doing very well. So is Canada.
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