bailout

This weekend has seen two major European financial institutions forced into the hands of government and a third on the verge of major new asset writedowns and job cuts. The events highlight the fragility of European banking and the need…

This video from yesterday's Council on Foreign Relations symposium gives Treasury Seretary Tim Geithner a chance to explain why he has constructed his bailout plan in the way he has. Rather than editorialize the video, I will provide it…

The political realities of solving a financial crisis have often meant circumventing legislative approval to meet the exigencies of a particular situation.  This was certainly the case in 1995 during the so-called Tequila Crisis in Mexico.…

Here we are just days out from the announcement by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner that the Obama Administration will be buying up so-called toxic assets as originally planned by Henry Paulson during the Bush Administration. The initial…

I have the same misgivings about the Public Private Partnership Investment Program that Paul Krugman does. However, I still think it could work in conjunction with all of the other stimulus being applied (at least in inducing a cyclical…

If you haven't noticed, I think the Geithner Plan, while far from perfect, has a reasonable chance of success. Marshall, too, believes the plan could work as he has suggested in his last post. The optics of it are another matter.…

Barack Obama's presidency will likely be decided by one single issue - his ability to deal with this financial crisis. With the release of his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's Public Private Partnership Investment Program two months into…

FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair said, "It has been clear for some time that troubled loans and securities have depressed market perceptions of banks and impeded new lending. Difficult market conditions have complicated efforts to sell these…

Below are the just-released details on the U.S. Treasury Public Private Partnership Investment Program. I will have commentary shortly in a separate post. However, before I do, I am posting the details here for your reference.

As understandable as the Congressional response to the AIG bonuses was, the reality is that this does create a number of disturbing precedents. We have a stupid Congress mindlessly lashing out to compensate for its own complicity in…