Dean, Dean

You know the Wash Post cannot not respond as quickly as the NYTimes to the news people need.

The Wash Post needs time to recycle and propagandize the news so that any hint of government malfeasance, neglect of public responsibility or outright deriliction needs to be airbrushed out of all articles.

So yesterday the NYT had a fine article which they titled "Audit..." an attention grabbing word.

Just for starters compare two points.

From the NYT:

" The report also shed new light on the effect the rating agencies had on the way the Fed handled the A.I.G. emergency. The company’s run-on-the-bank disaster began with a major credit downgrade in September; the Fed quickly responded with an $85 billion loan.
But because the Fed moved so quickly, it recycled a set of lending terms that had previously been devised for A.I.G. by lenders in the private sector. The interest rate was too high, given A.I.G.’s distress, and so the loan that was supposed to rescue the insurer ended up putting it at risk of a second credit downgrade. That, in turn, could have set off a second run-on-the-bank episode."

But the Washington Post removes any hint of Gaithner's questionable actions with the quote below:

WAPO:

"The government extended an $85 billion loan to AIG in September 2008 as the company struggled to pay obligations related to derivatives contracts at its Financial Products unit. According to Barofsky, that initial loan came with a high interest rate, which "inadequately addressed AIG's long term liquidity concerns, thus requiring further government support."

The AIG fiasco was the reason Timothy Gaithner never should have been nominated let alone confimed by Congress as treasury secretary.

But why is he still in this position?

The NYT in quoting Barofsky:

Mr. Barofsky said the facts also undermined the Fed’s arguments that banking secrecy was an essential part of bank stability.

“The default position, whenever government funds are deployed in a crisis to support markets or institutions, should be that the public is entitled to know what is being done with government funds,” he said.

.......

I have seen Gaithner a few times before one Congressional committee or another and each time he comports himself poorly and always has a smirk on his face after he answers the questions.

I cannot think of a gesture more likely to provoke a reaction in people especially those suffering due to Gaithner, Summers, Obama's action to bail wall street and let the country fail.

I am surprised you missed this great piece of reporting in the NYT on Sun 11/15/09. ( not in the WaPost at all-nothing, nada not mentioned)

November 15, 2009
In House, Many Spoke With One Voice: Lobbyists’
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were remarkably successful in getting the statements printed in the Congressional Record under the names of different members of Congress.

Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists.

In an interview, Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said: “I regret that the language was the same. I did not know it was.” He said he got his statement from his staff and “did not know where they got the information from.”

Just some of the upstanding members of congress that did this:

Joe Wilson R SC
Donad Payne D NJ
Phil Hare D Ill
Roberty Brady
Yvette Clark
Michel Conoway
Lynn Jenkins
Lee Terry

on on and on.......

amazing betrayal of americans by its elected representatives.

it is time for them all to go.

...by their elected representatives.

never change phrases without proofing.

badly botched the bailout of AIG. Its mishandling likely cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars to the benefit of folks like Goldman Sachs.

This seems intentional rather than accidental or mishandled.

I'm not at all sure that the bailout was "botched." It's just as likely that it was intended to provide additional benefit to Goldman Sachs. After all, why spend all that money influencing the government if you don't get a return on your investment?

I also think that self-dealing, the old boy network, and graft explain a lot of the recent failures in oversight and execution.

Recently I've been reading about American politics 1915-1930. A lot of the Congressional oversight of public finance during that era came from prairie progressives who were self-taught in law and economics (Sen. Shipstead and Congressman Lindbergh of Minnesota being two examples). In general the experts and the establishment closed their eyes to what was going on. I wish we had people like that in Congress now.

Obama signs an execultive order today per WaPo:

"Obama creates task force to fight financial crime"

and if that doesn't curl your hair the members so far are:

Eric Holder
Timothy Geithner
Sean Donovan
SEC Robt Khuzami

This is perverse.

We really need independents or trustworthy people to run in the next election even to serve for just one term. We really need to save our state governments to shore up what looks like a failed federal govenrment.

John Emerson,

I also wish we had principled representatives. Public financing of elections is a reasonable reform that might actually allow for some.

Geithner used to work for the Fed, and he still is their dutiful and submissive errand boy.

One man's "botch job" is another's windfall.