It seems like the big dino-wopping Wall Street bailout is running into politics.
Bloomberg notes that”
U.S. Democratic lawmakers said they would act quickly on a $700 billion rescue plan for U.S. financial companies, while demanding that the legislation limit compensation for executives of companies that will benefit.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged the measure be passed “clean and quick” and Democrats, who control both houses of Congress, pledged not to tie the measure to an economic stimulus plan or slow down its passage.
So much for that quick, clean bill that ol’ Hank was hoping for. It seems we are going to need to throw the Left a bone or three. Perhaps Hank forgot that old Washington concept–No Constituency Left Behind. Or something like that.
Meanwhile, CNBC quotes experts who note that the current bailout isn’t like the last time:
The Bush Administration’s $700 billion financial rescue plan bears little resemblance to the government’s handling of the savings and loan crisis almost two decades ago—and may not be as successful, experts say.
The plan, which is still being hammered out with Congress, raises a number of red flags. First and foremost, unlike the process then, there’s no accompanying re-regulation of the financial services industry.
So we bail them out from a gazillion dollars in poor investments and we don’t even get to make an attempt at ensuring we don’t have to do it again–at least for the same reasons? Nice.
And as a final note, ol’ Hank hates it for us taxpayers:
“I hate the fact that the taxpayer will be at risk, but the taxpayer was already at risk,” he said later on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Well, we may have been at risk, but I have to wonder if it was nearly as much as our betters want us to think.
I think this week has the potential to be most entertaining.
