You won’t get it today.
Newly confirmed Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner was slated to announce details of the revised bank bailout plan on today but that’s not going to happen. The Treasury is moving the planned speech ahead to tomorrow in order to focus on the economic stimulus bill. The bill is being debated today in Congress and most pundits expect a long day.
A spokesperson from the Treasury, Isaac Baker, said, “With record-high job losses, and weakening economic forecasts, we’re focused on working with Congress to pass an economic recovery bill so we can create the jobs and make the investments necessary to get our economy moving again.” His announcement comes amid news of more layoffs. Nissan has indicated that it will ax more than 20,000 jobs today.
Realistically, more taxpayers likely care about the stimulus plan than the revisions to the Troubled Asset Relief Fund, or TARP, which was created to save the nation’s banks. Considering the news of office renovations, planned purchases of private jets and sports teams, and disturbingly high bonuses for underachievement which have been earmarked by the banks so far, taxpayers are growing increasingly cynical (if that’s possible) that any additional money will be put to good use. Banks are not making new loans in the amounts anticipated and they have not made any advances in stalling a growing tide of foreclosures. It has made many taxpayers question what the point of throwing money at the banks was in the first place.
Despite the mood on Main Street, Geithner will announce how Wall Street will get to use the remaining $350 billion. Most experts anticipate that Geithner will announce a mixed bag of TARP measures, from buying up “bad assets” to insuring other assets, including mortgages and adding new capital.
But what will be done about the foreclosures? This is politically tricky. It’s important to stop the bleeding, all sides agree, but many taxpayers are wary of their own money being used to “rescue” homeowners who may have overborrowed. President Obama has indicated that nearly $50 billion to $100 billion will be spent to save homes. How that money will be spent is still uncertain.
It’s a scary proposition, isn’t it? The government throwing money – in amounts that we can’t even really grasp – at a problem with no guarantees that anything will change. In fact, since the TARP money has been paid out, initially under the Bush administration, with sums totaling more than $350 billion, little to no real change has happened. Arguably, the economy has gotten worse with more foreclosures and more layoffs. The so-called experts say that if we fix the banks, we can fix the economy. So, what’s the answer to the banking industries’ woes? We’ll have to wait one more day to find out.
Nothing to do with the banks – I was just reading, however, that Mr. Madoff is going to be fined some horrendous amount by the SEC (or somebody in government). Wouldn’t that money be better used to repay some of his investors? And thinking about Ponzi schemes, something I have said for years and years and years and years – does Social Security ring a bell when you think of Ponzi schemes.
Today is Monday. I am more curious about how the town hall is going to go. It’s good in a way that Geithner is not making the announcement today, because less attention would’ve been paid to it anyway.