"Geithner slammed over role in saving AIG; Defends using taxpayer funds; Panel blasts deals to banks" by Tom Raum and Daniel Wagner, Associated Press | January 28, 2010
WASHINGTON - Democrats and Republicans alike pummeled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner yesterday over his role in the $180 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG Inc., venting public anger over Wall Street’s return to prosperity while unemployment stands at 10 percent.
Related: Getting Into Geithner
Geithner, one of the original architects of the government’s 2008 response to the financial crisis as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, defended the use of taxpayer money as necessary to head off “potentially catastrophic damage to the economy.’’
But members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hammered away at why regulators allowed
“In effect, the taxpayers were propping up the hollow shells of AIG by stuffing it with money. And the rest of Wall Street came by and looted the corpse,’’ Edolphus Towns, a New York Democrat and the committee chairman, told Geithner.
And the horse is out the barn and running around the field.
Geithner received little cover from committee Democrats....
Representative Marcy Kaptur, Democrat of Ohio, suggested Geithner was more beholden to banking interests than to taxpayers at the New York Fed and cut him off abruptly when he tried to deny it.
Kaptur later called Geithner’s performance weak and said it showed that “he shouldn’t have been appointed in the first place.’’
She said in an interview that he should go, “but removing him would be an empty change without eliminating the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street.’’
She sounds good and all, but....
Slow Saturday Special: MIC Captures Marcy Kaptur
You know, other than Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul, the rest of that hill sucks!!!
Both Geithner and Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, have found themselves on the defensive, both targets of political discontent and rising voter anger over bailouts and bonuses.
Bernanke was scrambling for support for confirmation for a second term.
Not really.
See: Senate Backs Bernanke For Another Term
And Geithner faced speculation over whether his influence was fading....
Who cares about the INSIDE BASEBALL when NOTHING CHANGES?!!!
Geithner remained calm against the withering criticism.
He's a better man than you or I, right? Pffft!
“Deciding to support AIG was one of the most difficult choices I have ever been involved in, in over 20 years of public service. The steps that were taken were motivated solely by what we believed to be in the public interest,’’ Geithner said.
Isn't lying to Congress a crime?
He also repeated an insistence that he played no direct role in AIG deals to pay back banks that were business partners or in withholding information about them from the public....
Related: Geithner Thanks Goldmans For Buffett
Oh, he SIGNED OFF on the decisions, 'eh?
Liar!
Lawmakers want to know why so many bailout dollars were funneled to big banks that had deals with AIG and why officials from the Treasury Department and the New York Fed worked to keep the details of such decisions from the public.
Because they were DOING IT in OUR INTEREST, huh -- but we can't know about it?
PFFFFFFFTTT!!!!!
Although Bernanke and Geithner have taken the most heat, the government’s bank rescue effort began under former president George W. Bush and Henry Paulson, his Treasury secretary.
Paulson defended his role. “An AIG failure would have been devastating to the financial system and the economy,’’ he told the committee.
Representative Elijah Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, asked Paulson whether he understood the anger that ordinary people were feeling toward Wall Street barons who play golf with one another and are “looking out for themselves’’ while the rest of the country suffers.
“I’m not a golfer but I sure know that’s how people feel,’’ Paulson said.
Sigh. No you don't, scum.
“Congressman, you’ve got it. People are very, very angry. And rightfully so . . . They don’t recognize that what was done wasn’t done for the banks,’’ but to save the nation’s financial system and economy.
Maybe you should worry about that bald head of yours, a**hole!
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Related: Paulson Perjures Himself
He just did it again!
WASHINGTON - A House panel probing the bailout of American International Group is sharpening its questions for two Treasury secretaries and a federal investigator who believes the Federal Reserve withheld documents.
US Representative Edolphus Towns said yesterday that former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will appear at today’s hearing, along with current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Neil Barofsky, and officials from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York....
The committee is pressing for details about deals that sent billions from AIG’s bailout to banks including Goldman Sachs Group. Lawmakers want to know why the New York Fed pressed AIG to be more secretive about the “backdoor bailouts’’ and aspects of AIG’s management. Geithner approved the deals, which may have cost taxpayers billions more than necessary because he did not demand concessions from banks AIG did business with, according to Barofsky’s earlier audit....
But this WASN'T DONE for BANKS, it was done as a PUBLIC SERVICE, pffffft!!!!
Barofsky is investigating whether the Fed withheld documents he should have received as part of his earlier audit.
But we can TRUST the FED with our economy, etc.
More kabuki theater for the 'murkn public!
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Also see: It's Good to be a Bankster
