Neil Barofsky reviews TARP September 26, 2009 3:30 PM Subscribe
Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, says: If the goal was to increase lending, well we haven't increased lending. ... Banks that were too big to fail are bigger than ever. ... When TARP was announced, the whole purpose was a statement that we're not going to let our large financial instiutions fail. And with that I think we may be in a far more dangerous place today than we were a year ago. (via)
posted by Joe Beese (15 comments total)
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Who could have imagined that giving money to huge banks and then letting them hire lobbyists to lobby the same government that just gave them all the money could cause problems? posted by delmoi at 3:54 PM on September 26 [4 favorites]
(I'll repeat what I wrote in yesterdays finance thread)
As a programmer, it seems to me that the 'global finance system' is like a big stack of software entities, all interacting with each other, all written by different people and at different times, and with new patches applied often. No one can figure out the big picture of the whole system, but they have theories about parts of it. For a long time it has seemed to work and all hang together. Hackers and viruses exploit loopholes as they find them.
Then, about a year ago, we hit a blue screen of death. The illusion that the system was self-repairing was lost.
We managed to reboot in safe mode, but we're not sure when we'll hit the next big bug. posted by memebake at 4:21 PM on September 26 [4 favorites]
but we're not sure when we'll hit the next big bug
The other day I listened to two long-time commercial real estate lawyers explain why the bailout was essentially a down payment that did little or nothing to restore the durable availability of capital. Scary stuff. posted by Inspector.Gadget at 5:10 PM on September 26 [1 favorite]
Joe, you always post the most cheerful of stories. posted by WCityMike at 7:34 PM on September 26
Joe Beese, seriously, find some content that's actually worthy of the MeFi front page. You're two out of three for ridiculously thin, bullshit posts. HP LaserJet may actually make this thread worthwhile, but seriously, try harder. posted by SeizeTheDay at 8:21 PM on September 26
I think everyone is neglecting to realize that the Ancient Maya warned us precisely when this crisis would come to a head.
Worrying about the Global Financial Meltdown is less troublesome when you know Tibetan monasteries are going to be under the ocean in a little over two years.
I for one...well, nevermind. posted by jefficator at 10:04 PM on September 26
I love you, America. I really do. posted by BitterOldPunk at 12:12 AM on September 27
Joe Beese, seriously, find some content that's actually worthy of the MeFi front page. You're two out of three for ridiculously thin, bullshit posts. HP LaserJet may actually make this thread worthwhile, but seriously, try harder.
Just flag it and move on. posted by Talez at 1:26 AM on September 27
The only way we can be in a far worse place is if the banks used the past year to acquire nuclear weapons.
Otherwise, we're exactly where we started. If it goes bust, who cares if we spent a trillion to bail out banks. I'll pay that back with a day's wages at McDonalds posted by Kid Charlemagne at 2:45 AM on September 27 [1 favorite]
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posted by delmoi at 3:54 PM on September 26 [4 favorites]