Below is the video clip of U.S. Treasury Secretary defending his bailout plan which the likes of Paul Krugman have called “a plan to rearrange the deck chairs and hope that that keeps us from hitting the iceberg.”
The investors’ money is at risk. They can lose all their money. Now, again, you have to compare these to the alternatives. The alternative scheme, the government in our view, will be taking on much more risk. The taxpayer will be much more exposed to losses. … What we’re trying to do is get the entire financial system, our complicated system, working again so that we get credit where it needs to go in the economy and that requires strengthening our banking system. It requires making sure there’s enough capital to withstand a deeper recession, and we’re going to make sure that capital comes with conditions to make sure banks restructure, that there’s accountability for management, that the firms emerge stronger not weaker, and there are tough conditions to protect the taxpayer.
Yesterday, I posted another video of Tim Geithner explaining his bailout package. Clearly, Geithner is on a campaign to sell this plan to the American people. Are you buying?
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