Into the Bailout Buzz Saw (TARP follies and fraud)

NY Times ^ | July 21, 2012 | GRETCHEN MORGENSON

[neverdem]

IT might seem remarkable that there’s more to say about our late Bailout Age. But there is more — a lot more.

Nearly four years after Washington began its huge rescues of banks with taxpayer dollars, an important player in this, one of the great financial dramas of all time, is offering a damning account of how the Bush and Obama administrations handled the whole episode.

He is Neil Barofsky. Remember him — the man whose job it was to police the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program? And his new account, a book titled “Bailout” (Free Press), to be published on Tuesday, is a must-read.

His story is illuminating, if deeply depressing. We tag along with Mr. Barofsky, a former federal prosecutor, as he walks into a...

--snip--

“So much of what’s wrong with Dodd-Frank is it trusts the regulators to be completely immune to the corrupting influences of the banks,” he said in the interview. “That’s so unrealistic. Congress has to take a meat cleaver to these banks and not trust regulators to do the job with a scalpel.”

Finally, Mr. Barofsky joins the ranks of those who believe that another crisis is likely because of the failed response to this one. “Incentives are baked into the system to take advantage of it for short-term profit,” he said. “The incentives are to cheat, and cheating is profitable because there are no consequences.”

Despite all of this, Mr. Barofsky ends on something of a positive note. Meaningful changes to our broken system may finally come about, he writes, if enough people get angry. His conclusion is this: “Only with this appropriate and justified rage can we sow the seeds for the types of reform that will one day break our system free from the corrupting grasp of the megabanks.”...

[neverdem]

This Times' author is almost always worth a gander, IMHO.

[the invisib1e hand]

His conclusion is this: “Only with this appropriate and justified rage can we sow the seeds for the types of reform that will one day break our system free from the corrupting grasp of the megabanks.”...

A conclusion perfectly in synch with this radical age..."Kill your parents..."

[Repeal The 17th]

"...author is almost always worth a gander..."
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I beg to differ.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Forget Barofsky’s book and read Morgenson’s “Reckless Endangerment” - it tells in remarkable detail just how we came to the 2008 economic crisis, and why half the ‘rat party should be in jail right now......

[neverdem]

Forget Barofsky’s book and read Morgenson’s “Reckless Endangerment” - it tells in remarkable detail just how we came to the 2008 economic crisis, and why half the ‘rat party should be in jail right now......

Fanniegate: Gamechanger For The GOP?

This review of “Reckless Endangerment” makes me surprised that she's still working for the NY Times.

[Night Hides Not]

If Mark Twain were alive today, he might say:

"There are 3 kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and HAMP modifications."

[Intolerant in NJ]

This review of “Reckless Endangerment” makes me surprised that she's still working for the NY Times...For sure - not only does the book detail the corruption of the 'rats, but it includes a number of references to attempts made by 'pubs to put controls on Fannie and Freddie, like Rep Richard Baker's bill to cut off Fannie's credit line from the Treasury Department (the 'rats rallied to defeat the bill, letting taxpayers on the hook for billions when Fannie's mortgages failed). I keep waiting every time Obama goes into his rant about "not returning to the failed policies of the past administration" to hear some Republican come out with some of the ammunition available in this "gamechanger" of a book, but so far they've as usual managed to fumble the ball badly.......