"‘TARP’ Turning Out to Be Largest Taxpayer Swindle in U.S. History"

[WhiskeyGirl]

I think many saw the writing on the wall years ago.

CONGRESS AND THE WHITE HOUSE have been busy lately patting themselves on the back for staving off financial armageddon by handing out taxpayer money to Wall Street like it was Halloween candy. But while they’re trumpeting the fact that some financial firms have returned a tiny portion of the trillions of dollars that were given to banks, reality is setting in that Americans will never see that money again and will be paying it off for many, many years to come.

In late September, legislators quietly assessed whether they should begin phasing out some government aid programs like the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, which appropriated $700 billion— all of which had to be borrowed from bankers and foreign countries—to purchase bad investments, known as toxic assets, owned by financial firms.

By now, many policymakers inside the Beltway presume that Americans have forgotten how Bush’s Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke originally sold the massive payout by claiming that taxpayers would eventually reap “returns” on their “investment” in Wall Street.

Today, we’re being told that we should be happy that we will get back even some of that money. So now we know the truth about the TARP: It wasn’t enacted to protect the economy. It was created for the purpose of covering up the greatest theft of taxpayer dollars in the history of the United States.

read more here - http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tarp_195.html

[WhiskeyGirl]

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is "ultimately responsible" for regulators failing to rein in massive bonus payments at American International Group because he led the agencies that provided AIG's lifelines.

...

Geithner, who was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before taking over at Treasury, said he did not learn until March about the $1.75 billion in bonuses and other compensation promised to AIG employees. But Barofsky's report shows officials at the New York Fed learned of the payments in November, when Geithner was still at the bank.

...Barofsky says: "This is a failure of communication and a failure of management."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/14/watchdog-report-shows-treasury-fed-failed-aig-oversight/?test=latestnews

Wow.  I wonder how well big government and the job rotation will run healthcare?

Open your pockets special interests...

[WhiskeyGirl]

In fact, Geithner was chosen as Treasury Secretary precisely because he was wired into the big banks. There's a reason that Wall Street cheered his nomination to the post. For all of its talk about change, the Obama Administration is filled with recycled Clintonistas, like Geithner and Lawrence Summers, who were at the forefront of deregulation.

As we watch the circus around regulatory reform, Geithner should serve as an expert witness in discussing conflicts. After all, the New York Fed (as well as all 12 of the Federal Reserve Banks) are owned by the institutions they regulate, and they are also partly controlled by the Federal Reserve in Washington.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/09/business/econwatch/entry5374506.shtml

Let me see...the big banks own the Federal Reserve which regulates them...

Is that a conflict of interest? 

Do those big banks have Main Streets interest in mind?

Are those big banks owned or controlled for Americans or Foreigners?  Saudi's?

Why is the nation sinking?  America going broke?  To many foreigners in the trough?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Timothy Geithner aides 'paid millions by Wall Street firms'

Timothy Geithner's aides have been paid millions of dollars by a variety of Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, according to financial disclosure forms.

The treasury secretary has been tasked with cleaning up Wall Street but it has emerged his key advisors have been earning money from the institutions they are helping to regulate.

Aide Lee Sachs took more than $3 million in partnership income and salary from New York hedge fund Mariner Investment Group, while advisor Gene Sperling was paid almost $900,000 by Goldman Sachs last year, reports Bloomberg.

Mr Sperling was also paid more than $150,000 for a variety of speeches he gave to different financial institutions, including the firm run by alleged fraudster Allen Stanford.

http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2009/Oct/14/Timothy_Geithner_aides_'paid_millions_by_Wall_Street_firms'.html

Who's looking out for Main Street?  Anyone?

I think the Chinese have more interest in a sound stable dollar than does Congress, the White House, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, or the job rotation.