Scritti Politti: May 15, 2009
Did a TARP beneficiary accidentally speak the truth about the program to a reporter from the Telegraph? At first, the Daily Telegraph reported that Mark Patterson of MatlinPatterson, "a firm that invested in a Michigan bank with help from TARP," referred to the Troubled Asset Relief Program thusly:
"The taxpayers ought to know that we are in effect receiving a subsidy. They put in 40pc of the money but get little of the equity upside," said Mark Patterson, chairman of MatlinPatterson Advisers.
...Mr Patterson said the US Treasury is out of its depth and seems to be trying to put off drastic action by pretending that the banking system is still viable.
"It's a sham. The banks are insolvent. The US government is trying to sedate the public because they are down to the last $100bn (£66bn) of the $700bn TARP funds. They think they're doing this for the greater good of society," he said, speaking at the Qatar Global Investment Forum.
That drew the attention of Joe Weisenthal of Clusterstock. But since then, the Telegraph has taken down the story! Weisenthal's on the case:
We're still trying to get to the bottom of this one... this morning we linked to an article in UK paper The Telegraph, written by the aggressive reporter Ambrose-Evans Pritchard, which claimed that TARP investor Mark Patterson called the program a "sham" and a ripoff to taxpayers, even though his own firm had taken advantage of the program.
Now the paper has taken the article down at the behest of Patterson's attorney, who claims the reporting was not factual. We went back and forth with the lawyer, who was a little evasive with the real story, though he sent us the following statement. Ok, so Patterson claims he didn't call the TARP a "sham". But what did he say? That's what we're trying to figure out.
Naturally, to get to the bottom of this, you've got to "pull a Blagojevich" and subpoena Rahm, obviously.
This Will Be The Best Season Of 24 Ever: Sarabeth of 1115.org revises the "ticking time bomb" scenario to account for new realities. Good luck selling this, Liz Cheney!
This Day In Poppycrop: What's really missing from health care reform? If you are Peggy Noonan, rapturous, high-flown rhetoric!
Towards a Bigger and Better Takeaway: Yglesias: "If you're working in the executive branch and you're saying to yourself "if we fully briefed all members of the intelligence committees of both houses of congress about what we're about to do, they'd leak it to the press and there'd be hell to pay" you have to ask yourself "is that because what we're doing is scandalous and illegal?" The idea that executive agencies can keep secrets from members who sit on the committees that oversee their activities makes a hash of the whole idea of oversight."
Today's Briefing Room MVP: Is this guy! Whoever he is, he expertly brought Jon Stewart's satire into the briefing room, asking Gibbs how President Obama could withhold detention photos, citing the safety of Americans, whilst refusing to champion the cause of a translator discharged from his duty on the basis of being openly gay.
Nice work! If anyone can help us put a name to his face, please email us! [UPDATE: Hey! It's Tommy Christopher! I follow Christopher on Twitter and he's great. But we've never had the chance to meet in real life, so I didn't recognize! Sorry about that!]
And here's Christopher's story on the whole matter. And, in case you missed it, here's Lee Stranahan's video, that inspired the question:
And if you ever have an MVP of your own, let us know. And, Mr. President, take it from someone who has succeeded and failed at this: the best time to do the right thing is right now.
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First Posted: 05-15-09 04:33 PM | Updated: 05-16-09 01:39 PM