Why oh why do we have to put up with even one more day of the utterly incompetent Bush administration? Today Henry Paulson — frequently cited as Bush’s “just right” choice for Treasury Secretary after the uninspiring tenures of Paul O’Neill and John Snow — gave a press conference that amounted to little more than an Emily Litella soliloquy. “TARP? Oh Never Mind.”
Paulson managed to make a good decision — walking away from the ill-considered and likely unworkable idea of buying up banks’ “toxic assets” with $700B of taxpayer money — into yet another confirmation that they’re just making it up as they go. The Dow is down over 400 points (almost 5%) and every YES vote in Congress must be wondering what the hell they’ve signed up for. But you have to hand it to these guys, arrogant to the end:
Although Mr. Paulson did not mention possible penalties for banks that are reluctant to open their money spigots, there was no mistaking the tone of his message, coupled as it was with a statement from several financial regulatory agencies that they “expect all banking organizations to fulfill their fundamental role in the economy as intermediaries of credit to businesses, consumers and other creditworthy borrowers.”Now can someone please tell me why any bank in the country is going to fear punitive response from an administration that will be cast in the dustbin of history in two months?
Please Henry, take your little friends W and Dick and Condi and all the rest and GO HOME NOW. The adults have work to do.
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