NYT: Floyd Norris says oversight in revised TARP would mostly be Paulson overseeing himself
September 29, 2008
This is a must read. I linked to it two posts down, but this article deserves better.
It’s is absolutely frightening how close the House came to deifying Paulson. They literally added no oversight or control over the program, just enforced in writing that Paulson would have to let them watch as he exercised absolute power over the nation’s economy. Congress doesn’t want oversight. They don’t want to be responsible for the supervision of a program that is unlikely to help much. They appear to have either been absolutely hypnotized by Paulson or going out of their way to make sure they can’t be held accountable for the bill’s guaranteed failure. But they made sure to put some oversight-ish sounding language in the bill.
I hope everyone enjoys their sigh of relief after reading that, knowing that the bill failed to pass the House. Though, of course, a similar incarnation will find its way back to being voted on, I’m sure.
… and the cow goes moo
Yeah, that was just round one. I can’t believe how much cash they were gonna let this guy have leeway over. Jesus–that’s like some nation’s entire GDP for the year.
They may not wanna admit it, but it’s not the center that’s gonna get this bill passed. I think there may be an outside chance of some serious dove-tailing of the wings here.
We’ll see.
One Love,
–Rev M
Thanks for the input, Rev. Manny. I can’t tell you how frightened I am with the way things are going, despite the minor victory today.
I actually think with a little more make up, this bill will be palatable enough to get passed by a fairly broad majority (broad in terms of the range of the voters). I think it’s in their best interest to get it done (placate voters by looking like they have a grasp on the situation, and the TARP in some form will improve the outlook momentarily. They just need to push this past November), they can still use it for quid pro quo with major corporate donors, and they have a real and understandable fear that lack of action will cause a catastrophe.
It also helps that the time range for this bill is so compressed, adding to the secrecy. I mean, Floyd Norris’ article, scathing and important, only came out the day the vote was held. They can ram this home before anyone knows what happened.
… the metacow