Paulson: Government's action wasn't perfect, but needed ( Congressional Flogging continues )

MarketWatch ^ | Jul 16, 2009, 11:07 a.m. EST | Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatch

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday defended his involvement in Bank of America Corp.'s controversial acquisition of Merrill Lynch on Thursday, arguing that even though the government's "responses were not perfect," the actions were necessary.

"I am confident that our responses were substantially correct and that they saved this nation from great peril," Paulson told a House Oversight and Investigations Committee.

The former secretary of the Treasury is responding to concerns by lawmakers that he and the Federal Reserve may have ordered Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis to go through with the Merrill Lynch acquisition against his will, in part because failure to complete the transaction would expand the financial crisis.

Reuters

Other lawmakers took issue with Treasury's failure to disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission key details about Merrill Lynch's accelerating losses in a timely manner.

Paulson defended his actions, arguing that he acted suitably in warning Lewis that Bank of America's /quotes/comstock/13*!bac/quotes/nls/bac (BAC 13.12, -0.30, -2.24%) board and management could be ousted if the bank broke up the deal. Read Paulson's testimony

"Such an action would show a colossal lack of judgment and would jeopardize Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and the financial system," Paulson said. "I further explained to him [Lewis] that, under such circumstances, the Federal Reserve could exercise its authority to remove management and the board of Bank of America.

However, some Democratic lawmakers are taking issue, not only with Paulson but with Lewis.

Concerns about Lewis too

[cranked]

This guy is as slick as they come, along with Bernanke.
You know how hard it is to catch a snake by hand, try it.

[ActrFshr]

Grabbing snakes= no pain no gain? :(

All I know is every time I see some of these “ex” Goldman guys praising the necessity of bailouts which ultimately benefit GS shareholders my brain shuts down a little bit.

[Vigilanteman]

If Hank Paulson was smart, he would crawl back under the rock from whence he came and let Timothy Geitner make people forget he ever existed.

But somehow, Vichy Republicans just can't STFU to help the party.

[cranked]

“Blood shoots out of my eyes” -— Glenn Beck.

:-)

[sheikdetailfeather]

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_092208/content/01125108.guest.html

There’s a Big Idea at Stake in the Democrat-Caused Financial Crisis

(excerpt)

September 22, 2008

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: “Now, wait, folks. This gets even better. Welcome back to the Rush Limbaugh program, meeting and surpassing all audience expectations on a daily basis. So now we have Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, ex-Goldman Sachs and a Democrat appointed by President Bush, an old buddy of Chuck-U Schumer, by the way — and who isn’t in this mess a friend of Chuck Schumer’s? Schumer was involved in all of this as well. And now we got Hank Paulson in charge of, not elected, the most far-reaching government takeover of a huge chunk of our economy ever.”

[sheikdetailfeather]

Glenn Beck Clips 07-15-09 You Won’t BELIEVE The Goldman Sachs Governmental Ties Chart!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khGZ3a4zTNU

[sheikdetailfeather]

MORE FROM GLENN BECK ON GS:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=GLENN+BECK+GOLDMAN+SACHS&search_type=&aq=f

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You should be happy watching Cspan for the replay...

Related thread:

Lawmakers hit out at Paulson over BofA-Merrill ( They got very personal...with flogging)

[iopscusa]

Paulson is not a Republican! The majority of the Wall Street crooks also are not Rs....so cut out that big lie, the Rats own the Street!

[Vigilanteman]

I have no idea of Paulson’s professed politics and I suspect you don’t either. It is clear that he is not a conservative. It is also clear that he was appointed by a Republican president. So was Colin Powell. I don’t consider him a Republican either. But if he still insists on calling himself one, then he is, at best, a Vichy Republican. So it is with Hank Paulson.

[iopscusa]

IMO, Henry Paulson and many others in the Wall Street financial world fit the PO political category, Parasitic Opportunist.