hmmmm.....should the bailout 2.0 announcement have waited a day or so?

[amborin]

"And after more than three and a half hours, the hearing is over. We don’t know much more than we did this morning.

5:45 p.m.| Droning On: Senators keep talking, pointing out that Mr. Geithner and the New York Fed did not do a very good job of regulating the banking system. At one point a senator says Mr. Geithner is there to represent the financial system. That is not the secretary’s role, he is reminded by the witness.

4:45 p.m.| Watch the plan change: Mr. Geithner says it is “likely” that the ultimate system will have multiple funds to buy these assets. (See below for my comments on that.) So why is that not in the plan we see? It is more evidence to support the theory that there was so much infighting that details were put off.

4:15 p.m.| Vague..."

<snip>

"3:55 p.m.| When?: The real question someone should ask is when they think they can get this working. Part of the problem with the stock market today is that some people — count me in that group — thought the administration would soon pump money into the market for bank assets. That could in turn persuade investors to take a chance on bank stocks, and drive them and the rest of the market up. But we have no hint when the money will flow, or details on how it will work. The index of S.&P. 500 financial stocks is down 10 percent today.

My suspicion is that the infighting in the administration — between those who wanted to really punish bankers and those who thought that would be counterproductive — was so intense and went on so long that there was no time to work out the details. The warning sign on the Internet (see below) may be just one of the less important symptoms of that....."

<snip>

<http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/bailout-v-20/#comments>

[lonestarnot]

1. Not if it has anything to do with a mortgage fix.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Maybe. But fuck if I'm arrogant enough to pretend to be in such a position of knowledge as to say so

I'm pretty arrogant, but that's just stupid.

[amborin]

3. from someone's comment:

"Last week, Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, who is chairman of the Congressional TARP Oversight Panel, presented the three methodologies that were used to value TARP assets and concluded that U.S. taxpayers are being shortchanged by about $78 billion through the Treasury Department’s bank bailout. "

"The report concluded that, contrary to statements by Mr. Bush’s Treasury Secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., the government substantially overpaid for its equity stakes in banks. In all, the panel estimated the Bush Treasury Department spent $254 billion to buy assets actually worth only $176 billion, effectively handing firms like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and the American International Group a $78 billion subsidy.

The truth that Geithner is hiding is that by admitting that a TARP asset valuation model is in place he must admit that Citigroup, AIG and BofA are insolvent institutions. He must then also admit that his mentor tried to give $78 billion in taxpayer funds to Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and the American International Group....."

[FrenchieCat]

4. If Elizabeth Warren concluded what she did in reference to the 78 Billion subsidy,

what makes you say that Geithner is hiding it?

He and Ms. Warren both have the same boss.

How in the hell did we find out about this 78 Billion being discussed, but for the fact that we are being told? :shrug:

[amborin]

6. i didn't say G is hiding it.....in a post, someone is saying he's hiding the fact that

Citi, etc...are actually insolvent....since he is saying he has come up with an asset valuation model....

if Citi's assets have to be valued, and they do....they have tons of bad assets whose true market value no one knows (and which might be very very low)....then that means Bush gave all those billions of taxpayers dollars to essentially insolvent institutions

[stillcool]

5. Perhaps the market went down..

because there were no major layoffs/job cuts announced.

[FrenchieCat]

7. I think that Banks don't want to be audited......

and I think that folks today sold their Financial Institution stocks.