White House website:
And this morning, Secretary Geithner announced the latest element in this multi-pronged approach, and that is a mechanism that he, in close consultation with the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, has initiated in order to allow banks to take some of their bad assets off their books, sell them into a market, but do so in a way that doesn't just obligate taxpayers to buy at whatever price they're willing to sell these assets; instead, involves a public-private partnership that allows market participants who have every interest in making a profit to accurately price these assets so that the taxpayers share in the upside as well as the downside.
Geithner penned an extensive op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, and posted a detailed explanation of how the plan will function on the Treasury Department’s website.
Geithner: The private sector will set prices. Taxpayers will share in any upside.
Here is GOP's reaction:
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) has just released his official reaction to the Treasury Department's new toxic-asset-purchasing plan. And in an illustration of the GOP's sudden populist shift, Cantor attacked the proposal as a giveaway to big business:
As described, the plan seems to offer little incentive for private investors to participate unless the subsidy is made so rich that it comes at the expense of the taxpayer. In its current form, Secretary Geithner's plan is a shell game that hides the true cost of the program from the taxpayers that will be asked to pay for it. Six months after Congress debated the first TARP, it is inexcusable that taxpayers still have not been told their true exposure.
Disturbingly enough, Cantor's criticism of the Treasury plan echoes that of Paul Krugman, who wrote this morning:
The only way to argue that the subsidy is small is to claim that there's very little chance that assets purchased under the scheme will lose as much as 15 percent of their purchase price. Given what's happened over the past 2 years, is that a reasonable assertion?
And this morning, Secretary Geithner announced the latest element in this multi-pronged approach, and that is a mechanism that he, in close consultation with the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, has initiated in order to allow banks to take some of their bad assets off their books, sell them into a market, but do so in a way that doesn't just obligate taxpayers to buy at whatever price they're willing to sell these assets; instead, involves a public-private partnership that allows market participants who have every interest in making a profit to accurately price these assets so that the taxpayers share in the upside as well as the downside.
Geithner penned an extensive op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, and posted a detailed explanation of how the plan will function on the Treasury Department’s website.
Geithner: The private sector will set prices. Taxpayers will share in any upside.
Here is GOP's reaction:
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) has just released his official reaction to the Treasury Department's new toxic-asset-purchasing plan. And in an illustration of the GOP's sudden populist shift, Cantor attacked the proposal as a giveaway to big business:
As described, the plan seems to offer little incentive for private investors to participate unless the subsidy is made so rich that it comes at the expense of the taxpayer. In its current form, Secretary Geithner's plan is a shell game that hides the true cost of the program from the taxpayers that will be asked to pay for it. Six months after Congress debated the first TARP, it is inexcusable that taxpayers still have not been told their true exposure.
Disturbingly enough, Cantor's criticism of the Treasury plan echoes that of Paul Krugman, who wrote this morning:
The only way to argue that the subsidy is small is to claim that there's very little chance that assets purchased under the scheme will lose as much as 15 percent of their purchase price. Given what's happened over the past 2 years, is that a reasonable assertion?
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