Administration Officials Met With Laughter At Bailout Briefing

Administration officials were greeted with sarcasm and laughter Monday night when they briefed lawmakers and congressional staff on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's new financial-sector bailout project, according to people who were in the room.

The laughter was at its height when Obama officials explained that the White House planned to guarantee a wide swath of toxic assets -- which they referred to as "legacy assets" -- but wouldn't be asking Congress for money. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), a bailout opponent in the fall, asked the officials to give Congress the total dollar figure for which they were on the hook. The officials said that they couldn't provide a number, a response met by chuckling that was bipartisan, but tilted toward the GOP side. By guaranteeing the assets, Geithner hopes he can persuade the private sector to purchase a portion of them.

Congress may be able to do little more than laugh. The Federal Reserve, in extreme situations, is allowed to intervene in the financial markets in dramatic ways. The Fed jumped into the markets long before the $700 billion bailout passed through Congress by guaranteeing toxic assets held by CitiGroup and Bank of America.

The White House still has roughly $350 billion in Congress-appropriated TARP funds to use, and the officials told the group Monday night that it planned to use $50 billion for foreclosure mitigation and further amounts to shore up bank balance sheets.

The officials also said that a review of the bank's books would be undertaken to determine whether they could handle an even more severe economic downturn.

People briefed on the meeting also said that the White House proposed expanding the Temporary Asset Lending Facility (TALF) by up to one trillion dollars in order to shore up the market for credit card and auto loans. It would be a joint project of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Treasury's TARP funds.

Comments

[DeeOne1]

YAY!!!!!! WOOT!!!!!!! Congratulations media you did it!!

All of your doom and gloom about how bad the economy is and the real estate market has been for the last three years has finally screwed the economy big time!!! It is only logical that if Bob Smith (and millions of others) keeps hearing that no one is buying homes, then he will think to himself that I should not buy a home either! Yay media, aren't you happy!!!

http://www.TheCommentDepot.com

[BlackQueen40]

The impression I've taken from this article is this point: The Federal Reserve and Treasury can intervene in the markets under extreme or unusual circumstances. So, this means that Secretary Geithner can get together with Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke and they can institute the measures Secretary Geithner mapped out on Tuesday. Let the Republicans in Congress continue saying no and obstructing progress on spending issues but they can't stop them from intervening since we know the circumstances we are in right now are extreme and unusual. I happen to believe that's what they have planned. It would be a brilliant move. Chairman Bernanke has already been pumping tons of money into the system since this started so he can continue to do that, up to a point, and that's where they bring in the private capital. They can begin to address the mortgage foreclosures and get the toxic assets off the books or else they can order full audits, judge a bank insolvent, nationalize it, and go from there. They won't need the Republicans to do all this.

[purtzel]

Recovery plans ? - Obama;s people are missing a point

It seems to me that the plans for moving the economy out of it depressed state are all dependent on re-instituting the bad habits of the past.
Consumers are supposed to resume spending, though they have little reason to and do not have the borrowing power that they were used to during the past 15 years.
Asking consumers to again get to 70% of GDP spending is based on a pipe dream, because consumers do not have the money.
The loss of 3-4 million jobs did not exactly boost consumers assets to power a recovery by spending.

Perhaps worst is the failure to address the state of mind that business, banks, credit card companies and even government has imprinted on the gullible consumers that you can have it all now. Buy now, pay later. Low credit, pay on installments. Marketing has accustomed Americans that the day of reckoning will never arrive; that they can always borrow without end and pay monthly forever - at very steep interest rates if they ever miss a payment.

Business convinced Congress to make bankruptcy harder. The deck continued to be stacked against the very people on whom the GDP depended by a government dominated and excessively influenced by business that looked for a quick buck and high profits. - Have we now arrived at the point where the goose that laid the golden egg has been throttled?

[brighterlight]

This is who the GOP wants to reign: http://www.cnbc.com/id/29159656

Bank CEO Compensation, 2005 2006 2007 3-Year Total (in million dollars)

Goldman Sachs [GS Loading... () ] Lloyd Blankfein $30.84 / $43.87 / $27.97 // $102.67

JPMorgan Chase [JPM Loading... () ] Jamie Dimon $22.30 / $67.57 / $15.86 // $105.73

Bank of NY Mellon [BK Loading... () ] Robert Kelly n/a / $18.15 / $14.35 // $32.50

Bank of America [BAC Loading... () ] Ken Lewis $19.10 / $85.26 / $17.03 // $121.39

State Street [STT Loading... () ] Ronald Logue $18.08 / $16.94 / $8.23 // $43.25

Morgan Stanley [MS Loading... () ] John Mack $9.22 / $37.35 / $68.61 // $115.18

Citigroup [C Loading... () ] Vikram Pandit n/a / n/a / $3.16 // $3.16

Wells Fargo [WFC Loading... () ] John Stumpf $12.54 / $14.88 / $9.53 // $36.95

[GH]

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the top ten contributors for 2008 are:

1. Goldman Sachs - $4,287,701
2. Citigroup, Inc. - $3,438,497
3. JPMorgan Chase - $3,029,568
4. Morgan Stanley - $2,842,517
5. National Association of Realtors - $2,525,300
6. UBS AG - $2,256,060
7. American Bankers Association - $2,029,088
8. Lehman Brothers - $1,921,167
9. Merrill Lynch - $1,824,505
10. Bank of America - $1,800,504

And who took all this money? Other than noting who the Number one fella was --
it looks like the top ten are evenly split among Democrats and Republicans. But most of the money went to the current Pres. and Sec of State.

Take a look:
1. Barack Obama (D) - $22,501,165
2. Hillary Clinton (D) - $21,534,852
3. John McCain (R) - $19,560,938
4. Mitt Romney (R) - $13,757,677
5. Rudolph Giuliani (R) - $13,525,832
6. Christopher Dodd (D) - $5.958,468
7. Bill Richardson (D) - $3,454,112
8. John Edwards (D) - $2,148,293
9. Fred Thompson (R) - $1,932,549
10. Mitch McConnell (R) - $1,789,829

[rockyersocksoff]

Shhhhhhhhhhhh.

They'll call you a T r 0 I I...

[nomad27]

In a few months everybody will be laughing at the Obama circus...then the laughter will turn into tears after we realize how much we are going to have to pay for this debacle. Having the village idiot, Obama, was a cute idea at first but American's will realize in the next few months that they should've looked deeper into his policies and lack of experience.
SOFU Save Us From Obama!

[Interested Party]

You and your Republicans are the circus. What would John McCain do? Oh that's right, another war and more tax reductions for rich folks. Obama will do just fine - you are worried, that's all that he will.

[mamacat]

The laughter "....tilted toward the GOP side."

Who says these guys are out of touch with the American people?

[mjeffn]

Republicans are so tone def the sound of NRLB (No Republican Left Behind) crashing and burning is passing right by them. The tragic thing is that we are getting left behind, and the Repblicans can do is fiddle as Rome burns.

[Wide Stance]

Laughter in the face of economic strife, the death rattle of the GOP.

I can see the politcal ads now:

--interview with struggling seniors and families
--cut to laughing GOP senator
--cut to same senator on the golf course
--sound of laughter

"Haven't we had enough of Senator ____ laughing at out-of-work families?"

Coming to a voting booth near you, Election day, 2010.

[GOP1]

I'm not the least suprised, I remember the 2004 Correspondence Dinner, when Bush was up on stage in front of God and country, making jokes about the failure to find the WMD, ( the whole premise of going to war mind you), however many young men and women who died in battle up to that point, I don't know. But everybody there, Dems and repub alike were laughing their a$$'s off, made me want to puke!!!

[jacksontown]

it's chilling that there is no sense of culpability on the part of these politicians. laughter is such a wildly inappropriate response to efforts to extract us from a mess of their own creation. it's stomach-churning.

[RexOzone]

The derisive laughter may have had a familiar ring. Similar guffaws were recorded by Enron as they chided an old woman who was faced with fires in CA in 2000. The republicans may want to follow Blackwater's example and change their brand name so they can continue to enjoy tragedy with abhorrent comments like "Burn, baby, burn." This time the whole world is on fire.

[GH]

And then President Clinton did what; other than tell CA it was a local problem? And the Democratic gov of CA did what? Just because Newsweek, PBS and the LA Times changed the dates in their reports since to the "CA blackouts of 2001" doesn't mean that it was so. Enron was a baby of Bill Clinton. He and his policies - his Commerce department (Ron Brown) brought Enron along. His Treasury Secretary turned down the job offer from Enron (others did not) and went to Citigroup - which held most of Enron's commerical paper. Bush came in, in the midst of the 2000 economic collapse, and promptly refused to renew the $billions in guaranteed federal loans which Clinton had extended to Enron. Bush refused to consider the advances from Rubin to save Enron - and Enron collapsed - as did most of the fruadulent corporate ponzi economy of the late 90's.

[fed up in kansas]

The economy stands to do worse to America than 9/11 ever did. In that time of crisis Congress put aside its petty partisan tricks and stood together for America. Where are the Republicans now? The no greed is big enough no regulations required party is now acting like bad schoolboys. Our economic crisis is a joke to them.

[Audrey85]

Well the insult people is the laughter came from elected officials who are supposed to be wise
?professionals?. That's the scary part, not what Geithner presented. The GOP is against anything Obama. That's the ridiculousness of their politics and not what's best for the American people. 2010 throw the rest of the republicans out until they grow up and learn to be real Professionals handling the People's Business!

[StephenJK]

The look on Geithner's face tells me he has been through this "sarcastic laughter" before.

[KofTX]

And I guess all of these people who were laughing are just the foremost experts and well respected economist, eh?

[kennydarter]

these stories comparing geithner to paulson and gang are downright disturbing. Hate everywhere right now.
http://hateonme.com