Want to know what’s really crazy?
With all the indignant uproar and claims on FR and by many clueless conservative “leaders” that TARP (and its smaller foreign equivalents) was “illegal,” a “bailout” of the banks and bankers, and how it was the taxpayers money “given” to the fat-cat bankers, and the bashing that Bernanke and Paulson have, and still receive on FR and elsewhere for their role in TARP - this was the only article posted on FR on the subject of TARP and its [not unexpected] success... and in 3 days it garnered only about 20 replies from less than 10 people.
Wanna bet how many posts and replies and associated hue and cry you would see on FR if the headlines would state that TARP was losing more money than “expected”?
Most people on FR apparently still don’t understand how close the civilized world’s financial system was to collapsing and how necessary TARP was to inject liquidity into temporarily illiquid financial system, deflating and frozen credit markets, and instill confidence in the worldwide financial / banking system to stop the runs on the banks and then, for a time, help sustain the liquidity of commercial paper repo market.
Bernanke, being a student of Great Depression and the mistakes that were made by the Fed and the Congress at the time, was uniquely in the right place at the right time.
Hank Paulson used his credibility and energy to convince Bush and clueless lawmakers of the necessity of the immediate action and, instead of being credited and given their due as heroes, they somehow became the most reviled people among the economically illiterate or politically obstinate (sadly, including many conservatives).
So, after all that, WHY did Hank Paulson NEED a get out of JAIL card along with TRAP?
If it was all so “legal”, he didn’t need that at all, now did he?
And yes, I know that I “mistyped” TARP, because as far as I am concerned, TARP is a TRAP. A TRAP of never ending debt that will blow up.
LOL.... I don’t know who has been feeding you a line of B.S., but that is what you have purchased hook, line and sinker. It was what I expected out of a Banana Republic. Paulson should not only have his money and assets seized, but he should be in Prison! He converted Goldman Sachs after the TARP was passed in order to make sure it received TARP money. I don’t know where you are getting your news, but you are not being told the truth.
Too big to fail is complete rubbish, and violates economics 101.
Whoever you are listening too you need to leave, and get someone else. This is not a left or right thing. It was corruption plain and simple.