Revised U.S. bank bailout plan gets lukewarm receptionLukewarm? Try ice cold... Lukewarm would imply an indifference...or perhaps leaning to acceptance. The markets tanked yesterday. They know this is a (for lack of a better term) crap sandwich filled with impossibilities and pipe dreams...and PORK.
WASHINGTON: For Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, as much as for the troubled government program to bail out the financial system, Tuesday amounted to a do-over.
In his first big test as Treasury secretary, Geithner has one of the toughest sells in America: convincing lawmakers and taxpayers that they should again bail out the very banks whose mistakes contributed to the loss of more than three million jobs and caused acute financial pain around the globe.
Geithner announced a package that was far bigger than anyone had predicted and envisioned a far greater government role in markets and banks than at any time since the 1930s. Administration officials committed the government to flooding the financial system with as much as $2.5 trillion - $350 billion of that coming from the bailout fund and the rest from the Federal Reserve and private investors.
But initial reviews for the man and his plan were not good. Stock markets slid through the day, perhaps pushed downward by withering punditry on the business-news cable channels faulting Geithner for not having provided more details, particularly on stemming home foreclosures. Stocks in Asia followed suit Wednesday.
Another thing...blaming the banks for the mortgage failure is dishonest. Sure, they made the sub-prime loans that had no prayer of longevity while accumulating bad debt. However, they did so at the encouragement of the government with their "diversity awards", bullied by litigation filed by special interests, and pushed by race hustling extortionists. Efforts to suggest accountability...and reel it in were met by Democrat resistance (the same group that profited from campaign contributions...Obama had the biggest take).
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