Turbo Timmeh Shitener (he of the extensively deficient resumé) is the ultimate scam artiste. 
BB doesn’t come right out and say it (this is the MSM after all), but the implication is there in black and white:
“Compare that with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s latest proposal to help financial institutions remove unwanted loans and mortgage-backed securities from their balance sheets.
“Under the Treasury’s Public-Private Investment Program, the size of which could hit $1 trillion, the government plans to invest side-by-side with private investors who place bids on toxic assets that have plummeted in value. Those buyers, lured by federal loans and guarantees, might include affiliates of the same struggling banks and insurance companies the program is designed to assist.”
I suppose Ferdinand Pecora is rolling over in his grave. He never expected his report on the fraud and abuse that laed to GD1 would actually be used as a primer for .
gov to game the markets.
“As with an old-fashioned pool, one of the public-private program’s biggest vulnerabilities is that it invites collusion. That was one of the points made in a report this week by the Troubled Asset Relief Program’s inspector general.”
Dark pools of mattter
“The Treasury program’s goal is to drive up prices and stimulate trading, so the financial institutions can
minimize their losses and replenish their capital. Should the prices later collapse, taxpayers could end up with the vast majority of any losses.
As with an old-fashioned pool, one of the public-private program’s biggest vulnerabilities is that it invites collusion. That was one of the points made in a report this week by the Troubled Asset Relief Program’s inspector general.”
““In both the Legacy Loans Program and the Legacy Securities Program, the significant government-financed leverage presents a great incentive for collusion between the buyer and seller of the asset, or the buyer and other buyers, whereby, once again, the taxpayer takes a significant loss while others profit,” the report
said.”
Turbo Taxcheat Timmeh looking out for his cronies friends. Expect him to be amply compensated.
“No Controls
“Similar collusion could occur in the program for mortgage- backed securities. Fund managers might agree to overpay for each other’s holdings, leaving taxpayers to bear the losses. So far, the report said, the Treasury Department hasn’t set up the systems it needs to ensure proper oversight, such as basic conflict-of-interest rules or disclosure requirements for the private-equity firms’ owners.”
In Turbo Tim’s world, every asset always appreciates. Always.
“The main premise of Geithner’s plan is that the banks’ toxic assets are now priced at artificially low levels. As the federal bailout program’s Congressional Oversight Panel wrote in an April 7 report, “Treasury has not explained its assumption that the proper values for these assets are their book values,” rather than the prices unsubsidized investors would pay for them.
” ‘If Treasury’s premise proves false, we may end up looking back on the Public-
Private Investment Program as an elaborate pump-and-dump game. Only this time, unlike with the pools that sucked in gullible investors during the 1920s, the big losers would be taxpayers — who never had the choice of not playing.’ “
“It’s hard to imagine that Pecora would think any of this is a good idea.”
[BB]
…
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legerdemain
1 : sleight of hand
2 : a display of skill or adroitness
Good luck with those record poll numbers for the first 100 days, America. And don’t forget: keep talking to the hand. And if you happen to have a little moment in between drooling, ask yourself: who pays for the bank bail-outs? Remember, they need to be bailed out because they have debts so indecent they need to wear pants in public. And you think your president can pay off those debts?! He can’t, not even now he’s taken everything you own. You didn’t own nearly enough before, and you owe nothing but debt today. Any appeals to transparency and the rule of law will be dealt with the way Ken Lewis tried today at the Bank of America shareholders meeting. He told that bunch of sore losers that he was mum on Merrill’s losses because of “systemic risk”. He did so just a short while after telling Andrew Cuomo it was because Paulson and Bernanke made him do it. Hey, who cares about the difference anymore? All we need to do is sit back and wait for Obama to start using terms like “systemic risk” and “national security”. He will as soon as those numbers start dropping. For now, though, it’s Lala Land all the way. US GDP drops even faster than Germany, and the street turns a “healthy profit”. We must be stuck in Pleasantville, Land of Oz, and glued to the Truman Show. Say what you will, bu
t the Obama campaign is one of the most outstanding sales jobs in history, fridges for Eskimo’s territory. The economy tanks, and stocks rise. A politician robs his voters blind, and his ratings go through the roof. This is not a housing bubble or credit bubble we’re witnessing, it’s a reality bubble. -Ilargi
Posted by Paco Bell 
Posted by Paco Bell 
Posted by Paco Bell 
