Neel Kashkari's Congressional Gauntlet: TARP Overseer Takes Heat From Both Sides

New York Times:

He had barely finished his opening remarks Wednesday when the public grilling began.

Neel Kashkari appeared before the House Financial Services Committee to testify on how the government's $700 billion financial bailout plan was working -- or not working, depending on whom you ask. The very title of the hearing, "Oversight Concerns Regarding Treasury Department Conduct of the Troubled Assets Relief Program," foreshadowed the skeptical tone that emerged when the lawmakers took to their microphones.

Representatives from both parties expressed concern Wednesday about whether the federal money deployed in recent weeks to buy stakes in big Wall Street firms and banks was being put to good use.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Ranta]

So Kashkari comes in and hangs his head while our valiant elected representatives roast him. It's really a small price to pay for the billions he and his cronies steal.
He goes home , has a cigar and cognac and smiles to himself over what a great schoolboy performance he put on.

[djgonebad]

How much is Neel Kashkari getting for taking the heat for the NEO-CONS?!!

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

He is certainly not the only one who had to appear in hearings and in front of congress and lawmakers. And it's pretty certain that we will see a lot more of this happening.

And rightly so.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

It is not enough for Congress to put on a show and turn up the heat on one person even if that person looks like a Hollywood bad guy.

Is the House Financial Services Committee really serious about finding out what is wrong with the $700 billion bailout plan and not merely putting on their own show?

If so, they would bring in all the top level people from Goldman Sachs as well as those from Goldman Sachs who have been placed in high-level governmental positions.

[Erdgeist]

Capitalism has done little to benefit most of the world, In fact, most of the world lives in poverty. American capitalists can't blame these appalling conditions on the Communists anymore. And very soon the U.S. is going to enter into Third World status, no thanks to its belief in capitalism which means the "appropriation of capital by some to the exclusion of others" (Louis Blanc, 1850).

[atlantajoe]

Erdgeist, Most of the world lives in poverty because they don't have Capitalism. Do you think the the people in Zimabawe that are starving and dying are blaming capitalists or the dictator Mugabe.

[anonimost]

Exactly. Thanks for reminding everyone re: Zimbabwe.

[Peter007]

Capitalism means using Capital, labor, materials, land, to create profits. Profits mean wealth. No profits, no wealth.
Its good to be wealthy. You can help other people. We're not getting any aid packages from Haiti.

[flyday611]

Yepee! somebody hit the nail on the head. It is not Capitalism when you put Capital, Materials and Land together with Cheap outsourced labor. This model does not create profits!!! This results in NO Profits and NO Wealth since the American Public are your largest consumers out there without any substantial Capital. Trying to eliminate the American middle class is like cutting your own wealthy corporate throat. It does come back to bit you!

[blueskybigstar]

Capitalism is fine as long as it is regulated in a way that benefits the people. Things that don't benefit society should be penalized. Things that help society should be subsidized.

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

Capitalism basically means that there is a rule of law guaranteeing property rights.

There is nothing in this assumption or model which would imply that capital is to be owned by few, and there is nothing in this assumption or model which would imply that some must be excluded or will necessarily be excluded.

Property rights (equity stakes) mean, however, that the returns are a compensation for risk: of wiping out the investment.

What you describe and/or criticize is plutocracy, not capitalism. Much of the world lives in plutocracy, certainly present day Russia. What's happening at the moment in the financial crisis has one good side effect (among all the desastrous ones): the plutocratic residual of the US is wiped out and is exhibited as devoid of any legitimacy.

There is nothing wrong with ownership, nor with an ownership society. As long as the owners take care of having a good look at the business that the firms are conducting whose stock they own. Including banks. That's not easy, but to get there, or at least close, it doesn't help to fight the wars of yesteryear.

[munki]

stock market will be hit hard today... all GOP boy's network causing this...

[1murillo]

I agree that serious work needs to be done to save some of the money that might still exist, but,
as capitalists - they must be good capitalists because they have $1,000,000,000s - they are supposed to make money at every opportunity.

The confederate senators just showed how to legally destroy the auto unions, and they're not supposed to have power.

Now that Kashkari has been slapped, what happens next?

[Mogamboguru]

January 20, 2009, a new chapter in US-history will be opened - hopefully.

[djgonebad]

BRAINS RETUN TO WASHINGTON.

SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!!

BUT PLEASE, HURRY UP BEFORE MY BELOVED DETROIT GOES UP IN SMOKE!!!

[Hallucinocynic]

Everything cycles. Time to take a quick breath and reassess.

The proposed economic bandaid was nothing more than tossing sand against the tide. Corporate entities come and go, but the real people in trouble are the ancillary workers who make a living wage and this failure/refusal to negotiate should compel the new administration to take a hard line against those in Congress who simply could care less about anyone outside their constituency.

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

Not so fast.

It is still perfectly possible that the bailout DOES make money in the end. If financial markets bounce back, the US taxpayers make themselves a fortune.

It ain't over til it's over.

[ploopy]

goldman sacked

[ploopy]

transactional analysis. games people play? "now i got you , you s.o.b."

[FreedomAgain]

"We have put $7.8 trillion of taxpayers’ money for the purpose of creating credit, and it has been a dismal failure."

Whoever trusted bankers with 7.8 trillion without written legislation telling them precisely what to do should be immediately fired, tarred and feathered, and possibly hanged.

[Mogamboguru]

Sigh!

I agree...

[FreedomAgain]

Rich boy sell-out. We should seize their assets and let them live on the streets for a while.

[AContrario]

On the main streets they will turn to dealers and pimps.Seri­ously. These last months have shown us
that the line between corporate business and organized is blur.

[AContrario]

sorry for the typo I meant:

"On the main streets they will turn to dealers and pimps.Seri­ously. These last months have shown us
that the line between corporate business and organized crime is blur."

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

But de Niro and Keitel are too old. So who will star in the new 'Mean Streets'?

[anonimost]

CashCowri sat there like an arrogrant p rick with a smirk on his face.

He didn't get enough h ell.

[ErnestineBass]

Let this be a lesson to all the budding "Masters of the Economic Universe".

Every job you take is going on your permanent record.

[Brokenduck]

Sherman McCoy might as well be running TARP.

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

Isn't he in jail?

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

Well, the poor man certainly doesn't have an easy job.

But it sure makes me wonder how things would have worked out if Paulson's original proposal with ZERO oversight and NO accountability had gone through congress.

That original proposal of Paulson counts among the best jokes in history.

[joebaggadonuts]

If this does lead to a revolution, I don't think I would be surprised to see the media coverage of the heads of Kash-n-Karry, Paulson, Bush, Cheney, Snow, Bernanke, and Greenspan, and not a few others, on poles, forming a gappy palisade around the Washington Monument.

[ErnestineBass]

Greenscam already looks that way.

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

Presumably, this is indeed what would happen if there were a revolution.

Unless it is lead by the center, by the middle-class, by legal means, called elections. Whose consequences will be visible cometh Jan 20th.

The poor old greeks were done in by the romans (and persians, and whatever..­.) before they could find the time to rid themselves of slavery within their democracy. The US has done better. There's legitimate hope to believe that the innovative power of the US as a whole will suffice to even manage to get out of this mess. Which is more than could be said about most countries that underwent radical revolutions. This could be related to the fact that rolling heads aren't in fact solutions to problems.

[roybattyjunior]

I love seeing anyone from the Goldman Sachs Gang getting b-slapped! Though it would have been better if he had been b-slapped before he was given all that loot to divvy up with his banker/ponzi scammer pals...

[fleaba]

good luck with that, GS owns the government and has for many, many presidential terms.

[atlantajoe]

What party has more ex sachs employees as officeholders ?