Treasury overpaid $78 bn for bank assets

What is truly "eyebrow raising" is that the article quotes Dem senator Chris Dodd, head of the senate panel, without mentioning that Chris Dodd got sweetheart government mortgage loans and thus helped create those "toxic assets".

It's as if Jesse James chaired a panel on bank security, and the reporter didn't mention the irony.

How can this be?!?!

I thought the government is the smartest people in the world, and they know everything.

How can they make a mistake like this?

You mean they may have overpaid for a service?

I am shocked, and it is clear that Obama needs to wave his hands and make the problem go away.

These are a bunch of elected idiots! Dodd concerned? About what his VIP rate of 4%? Time to get rid of all of these so called "we're going to change things." Change alright for the worse.

They are not idiots. They are not blameless. Go to opensecrets.org and look at Dodd's top contributors.

"We want to emphasize there may be good policy reasons for overpaying." Get used to this analysis. Until the haircut is applied evenly to both borrowers (u, me, businesses) and lenders (banks, the Gov't or investors) we're in for a bit of uncertainty.

Does it surprise you lenders have been shy about their assets?

Does it surprise you borrowers over-extended themselves?

None of this "overpaying" drivel should be any surprise!

Of course we over paid. These were my buddies and I needed to give them a going away present so they would hire me, members of my family and other members of my administration. Welcome to Federal politics. Cheney is laughing his A** off as he rolls around in his Haliburton money.

I hear NcCain is suspending his campaign to push this through? Is that correct?

Government and Big Business are two sides of the same coin.

Is anyone surprised? Overpaying is the entire purpose of the federal asset purchase plan (whatever they're calling it today). The market thinks these junk assets are worthless, so the feds planned all along to massively overpay just to bail out bankers. Your taxes at work.

Paulson made it clear from the beginning that he did not care about the American taxpayer, but so many people did not listen.

So when Hank Paulson said "Just trust us..." we shouldn't have?

Dan c.....I know what you mean to say was your shock that the pug bankers in their white collars are supposed to be the smartest people in the world. And who would ever imagine that they would steal money from the governement? When they always fairly deal with their customers, right? I also thought the financial sector was supposed to regulate itself too. Let's remove all the oversight so that business is not hampered with those pesky government audits. You pugs are all ignorant.

So these are the greatest economic minds?

all that banks have ever been are legalized crooks, why is anybody surprised by all the fraud and stealing that has gone on, it has been going on for generations.
a crook does not care what happens to the victem and they never will.

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Posted by: Xcellentform | February 5, 2009 1:38 PM
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Where’s your proof that all those bankers are “pugs,” as you call them? Go ask Senator Dodd, former Governor Rod Blagojevich, or former Congressman William J. Jefferson if corruption and greed are confined to the Republican Party. It really makes me wince when you jump to conclusions like that.

Is there anything that the Bush administration did not screw up in the last 8 years? We should demand that he and Cheney pay America back for every dime they wasted. One trillion for Irag, 350 billion for TARP, all the wasted money for Katrina, Medicare drug coverage, and on and on. Debters prison would not be punishment enough.

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Posted by: pd | February 5, 2009 2:54 PM
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How much should we make Obama, Biden, and Hillary pay back? They all voted for the Wall Street Bailout.
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PS - It’s “debtor’s prison” and the practice of imprisoning for debt was abolished with the Thirteenth Amendment.

How much should we make Obama, Biden, and Hillary pay back? They all voted for the Wall Street Bailout.

Yes John, they voted for it but the Bush administration administered it.

And any prison would be fine.

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Posted by: pd | February 5, 2009 3:33 PM
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But you’re missing something here. The Wall Street Bailout (aka TARP) bill wouldn’t have passed were it not for the Democrats’ overwhelming support for it. If you insist on exacting restitution or prison terms because if the TARP bill or other government excesses, then it only seems fair that all these Democrats should take their fair share of the blame because they are just as responsible.
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Don’t think for a second that only Republicans were responsible for all the government excess and wasteful spending during Duh’bya’s time in office. The decision to spend money starts with Congress, and the Democrats have had more than their fair share of it.

Honestly, what did they expect? Paulsen's on the record saying they just picked "a large number." Why McCain voted for that travesty is beyond me. I understand why Obama and the dems voted for it, to make the government even larger, but if McCain would've opposed that mess he'd be the president right now.

John W....what the (&*^$#??? Why are you asking me rhetorical questions? I would've expected your last post to come from Inky. As someone pointed out last week: when was the last time you were lent money from a liberal banker? Another point: Bankers do not want regulation, which would favor the pugs. You and I both know that the vast majority of bankers are republicans, so if you want to still argue that point, prove me wrong.

Hey, I've got a legal question posed at you on the Obama artwork thread.

I think we can be pretty certain that "error" was deliberate. Paulson was just taking care of his friends.
Marcy Kaptur pointed out on Democracy Now! that the Treasury Dept, was the wrong agency to handle the TARP money. It should have been done by the FDIC and the SEC. The FDIC has auditors and could have traced all the loans as well as renegotiating performing loans, something the Bush Administration didn't want.
Not only were Paulson's conflict of interest a problem but the job of the Treasury is to market US debt. They have no expertise or mandate for dealing with a housing crisis.