TARP Oversight Panel Says It's Been Ignored By Geithner And Paulson

Congress Daily :

The Congressional Oversight Panel, the group charged with overseeing how the federal government allocates $700 billion to prop up the nation's financial institutions, supports greater public disclosure of how the program is working, but the panel itself often can't get the information it needs to do its job, members said today. Damon Silvers, the oversight panel's deputy chairman, told the Joint Economic Committee that he and other panel members are waiting for Treasury Secretary Geithner to appear before them to explain how the Obama administration plans to help failing banks. Among the things the panel still needs to know is how the administration plans to deal with the toxic assets like failed loans and foreclosures that are bogging down banks, panel members said.

The oversight panel had asked Henry Paulson, Treasury secretary in the Bush administration and the chief architect of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for the same information but never heard back from him, Silvers said. The bottom line, panel members said, is that even though about $300 billion has been spent and another $350 billion has been made available to bail out financial institutions, those who are supposed to be overseeing the program lack the information they need to perform their duties, Silvers said.

Read the whole story: Congress Daily

Comments

[ILibertine]

09:16 AM on 03/13/2009

This is analogous to an SEC not investigating tips about Madoff. It is obvious the Treasury Secs. are handing out hundreds of billions without transparency and perhaps without much notion of what they are trying to accomplish other than feathering their friend's beds. "Never heard back" from Paulson! Where are the concerned legislators that can put some pressure for accountability? Waiting for it to become obvious this bailout is being conducted as a collusive business ripoff, it would seem. Then they'll get into the fray with an air of astonishment.

[breakingpoint]

06:06 AM on 03/13/2009

this should be front page news

[Rule Of Law]

06:52 PM on 03/12/2009

Paulson WON"T give the The Congressional Oversight Panel the info they need to do the job of reigning in these criminals.

But, but but, Obama, everyone said, has a grand plan, he's smarter than we are and it will be his strong leadership that bends these banksters--Like Paulson, Summers, Geithner et al--to his populist will!

I said, leopards don't change their money green spots!

So how's that "Obama--the buck stops here," plan working for you?

He can't even get his Sec Treas. to play nice with his own oversight panel...

[Rule Of Law]

06:55 PM on 03/12/2009

sorry--meant to say Geithner won''t give... but Paulson wouldn't comply before him, either. Why are we not surprised?

[Lala2]

06:01 PM on 03/12/2009

Whatever happened to my favorite pretend boyfriend Neal Kash'n carry?
Where did the love go?

[PhilipTaylor]

06:09 PM on 03/12/2009

Last I heard he was working for Geithner!

[iSeeDumbPeople]

05:18 PM on 03/12/2009

Bailout funds surpass $12 trillion and counting.

http://solari.com/blog/?p=2258]

Had this money been giving back to the people -- from whom it was taken -- that would have been a $40,000 check for every man, woman, and child in this country. More businesses would have been saved had the people actually had money to spend on goods and re-invest back into the markets.

These bailouts are just the latest in the long line of "trickle down" rouses. When will people learn.

[PhilipTaylor]

06:17 PM on 03/12/2009

The biggest Robbery of 95% of Americans in History!

They are sucking our Future DRY for the benefit of ELITE BANKSTERS - NOT ONE EXECUTIVE FIRED TO DATE! (THAIN was part of a merger and deserved it as do the rest!)

On April 4 there is a march on Wall Street! Check it out on Google!

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/

[iSeeDumbPeople]

11:06 PM on 03/12/2009

Thanks. I signed up for their action alerts.

[chocolatecity]

03:25 PM on 03/12/2009

How much TARP money has Geithner handed out since becoming Treasury Secretary? Why is this his fault?

[Eidolas]

04:43 PM on 03/12/2009

Probably something to do with his title.

[Ironquill]

02:42 PM on 03/12/2009

Yesterday a Mr. Kanas was on CNBC, saying that hedge funds and "private equity" investors were on the edge of their seats waiting for details on Geithner's "public/private" partnerships to buy mortgage securities at the low with no money down and guaranteed loans from the government.

Buffet has been on every financial show drooling at the prospects of public/private deals.

Please don't interpret "public" as John Q Public investor who as an invidual will never get a piece of the action, but the taxpayers as a whole who might see something come from this in a couple of decades from now.

Doesn't the Obama Administration see the looming public relations disaster when the real public finds out that the same fat cats who raped and pillaged companies and put hundreds of thousands of people out of work are one in the same with the "private investors" who are now being given a free shot at these so-called distressed mortgage assets, while we take on their risk?

[JoeBlough]

02:29 PM on 03/12/2009

Maybe, it's time to shut down TARP until all the players decide how to trace the money first. And about the money spent so far, where are the receipts?

[Eidolas]

01:40 PM on 03/12/2009

Bush, Obama, Republican, Democrat - What's the difference where this financial mess is concerned? Two sides of the same coin.

[NavyMom44]

12:12 PM on 03/12/2009

Ok in Geithner defense he is basically working solo, he has no help and the people he wants will not commit because they know the obtructionist party will stonewall the process

[tamsam07]

01:08 PM on 03/12/2009

He chose to work solo.

[Lillopa]

12:09 PM on 03/12/2009

Think maybe ..have to clean house and this is a massive house?--What not just handing out nothing till the house maybe gets scrubbed clean and disinfected ??? this is huge, bigger then we know or even can comprehend to the depth of all theses serious issues--If we knew all would we not be, what in shock and awe?

[Ironquill]

12:47 PM on 03/12/2009

Some of the worst problems have been fixed and the financial markets are beginning to work. As long as the downturn doesn't accelerate over the next several months, we will slowly work our way out of this mess.

At the root of the problem are assets held by banks, including mortgages, for which there is no market. What to do with these?

The solution to these assets is to start trading them at any price, and hope the market will trend up as the enormous stimulus gets things at least stabilized.

The idea is to give fat cats a good deal on these assets so that the pump can be primed. They will buy these assets at the low, with no equity money at risk, and with our gaurantees as taxpayers.

My complaint is that there is absolutely no provision for small investors and taxpayers to benefit to the upside except to buy bank securities in the stock market. We will again take the risks of ups and downs, while the economy improves and the once toxic mortgage assets double and triple in value.

[AnnfromCA]

12:08 PM on 03/12/2009

yup......I'm not surprised. This is why Wall St. is confused, too. And why more and more criticism of Obama is popping up.

Focus on what's needed......getting the banks stabilized.

[Ironquill]

12:20 PM on 03/12/2009

Obama has a full plate, I don't envy him.
But Geithner was an unfortunate choice, he is an insider, privileged, is a banker at heart in the tradtional sense--which means he is risk averse.
He needs an entrepreneur at his side as he is missing the obvious.
The fat cats again will get the spoils. That frosts me.
What's left for a small investor who is forced not only to provide insurance to the downside for a hedge fund, but to take the scraps from a stock market which is ruled by gunslingers?
So, Mr. Geithner, what has changed?

[Ironquill]

12:05 PM on 03/12/2009

I just took a few bank stocks off the table, pocketed a small profit, to he.ll with captial gains taxes, this is not a buy and hold stock market.

Here is Ironquill's new taxpayer and non mortgage assisted citizens' distressed mortgage securities insured investment plan.

It's called the REVERSE STIMULUS CHECK PLAN.

Geithner sends me a reverse stimulus voucher for up to $20,000. I send it back with a check from my IRA money market fund which is sitting there idle. I am not taxed on the withdrawal, but can only take up to a certain percentage of my money market so as not to go hog wild and lose Obama the next election.

Here's the deal. Let's do mark to market. Give me the same price and terms as the last Hedge Fund or Buffet transaction received, including any guarantees to the downside. And give me the same upside potential.

[Golfer59]

12:05 PM on 03/12/2009

So, Wall Street runs a scam and make billions. The "Chicken come home to roost" and the economy tanks leaving the american tax payer holding the bag. We, the american tax payer, bailout these greedy SOB's and the guys holding the "bailout" purse strings, Paulson and Geithner decide they don't want to talk. GET THE $$$ BACK!!! If the banks don't want to give it back, send then to JAIL!!!

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

11:59 AM on 03/12/2009

I trust Geithner as much as I trust the SEC. And for Paulson..... well, I only have bad things to say, so I'm not gonna say them.