Comments on: Obama's First Job? Execute an Economic Water Landing for the Banks

By: earle

earle — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:13:46 +0000

I hope that I’m on subject,but I’ll throw this out anyway. The “Resolution Trust” bank act in the 80’s to clear up the savings&loan banks scandal/failure/debacle then amounted to a total of approx.$150mn. There’s talk were headed in that direction,and if so the financial outcome won’t be pretty, from what I’ve researched the public got back only $15-20mn of the total amount. It was a total sham for the taxpayers,whom by the way are probably still paying interest/taxes to this day? PS Brian ,I have a question for you regarding past SoT Paul O’Neil and his partner Mr. Lawrence Lindsey whom were fired by Bush. Do you think it would be worth while for President Obama to reach accross the aisle,and ask them to join his team?

By: Joe Costello

Joe Costello — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:09:40 +0000

I have to agree. I am completely disgusted with the way these banks have stabbed us in the backs. How can we trust them with more of OUR money, when they dont even know what to do with the money they got. Maybe if they used the first round of money to actually shore themselves up, as opposed to buying up smaller banks and putting money in their own pockets, we might trust them a little more. This is nothing more than a black hole of tax payer dollars and I for one, dont want to see anymore of my money thrown away. How about we fire some execs and try to put someone in who actually knows what they are doing? If I ran my job this bad, I would be fired in a heartbeat! Well, they are not performing, they should be fired on the spot! Give me the 350B, I can do much better things with it than they do…..

By: JohnC

JohnC — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:47:14 +0000

And just think, the $700B spent is not enough, we are soon to have another bank bailout plan. And I am sure,as the previous two bank bailouts show, none of it will help “We the working people”!

By: RandyG

RandyG — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:41:19 +0000

Brian, I’m disappointed that you seem to believe that ALL banks deserve to be saved, no matter what. Americans lack confidence in our financial system because, well, it’s been a “shell game”, a giant ponzi scheme. CDS, SIV, all kinds of acronyms, “off the books” liabilities (how does THAT work) make people like me realize that what we had believed was reality, was nothing more than fantasy. We can’t fix the banks. They have yet to actually provide a complete, everything’s-on-the-books financial aaccounting of their true financial position. We can’t fix something if we don’t even know the extent of the problem, and don’t try to ascertain it’s true depth. TARP the First simply allowed banks to shore up their financials, buy other banks to get ever more money, and continue to play the game, only with OUR money. Sorry, I’m going to sit this one out.

By: Gary Driscoll

Gary Driscoll — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:15:04 +0000

At least for me, no credo for either our government nor our big businesses, and especially not for our financial institutions, including the Treasury and the Fed.