Congressional Oversight Panel Report on Bailout

By TFB

As I was driving home from work last night, I heard Professor Elizabeth Warren interviewed on Fresh Air program on NPR. Professor Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard law professor. She wrote the book The Two Income Trap which I reviewed before. She was also in the documentary Maxed Out which I also reviewed. She is the chairwoman of the 4-member Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization, which was created to oversee the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and make reports to Congress. The other three members of this panel are:

  • Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)
  • Richard H. Neiman, Superintendent of Banking, State of New York
  • Damon Silvers, Associate General Counsel, AFL-CIO

The interview was about the first report from this panel. The report raised ten questions:

  1. What is Treasury’s Strategy?
  2. Is the Strategy Working to Stabilize Markets?
  3. Is the Strategy Helping to Reduce Foreclosures?
  4. What Have Financial Institutions Done With the Taxpayers’ Money Received So Far?
  5. Is the Public Receiving a Fair Deal?
  6. What is Treasury Doing to Help the American Family?
  7. Is Treasury Imposing Reforms on Financial Institutions That Are Taking Taxpayer Money?
  8. How is Treasury Deciding Which Institutions Receive the Money?
  9. What is the Scope of Treasury’s Statutory Authority?
  10. Is Treasury Looking Ahead?

I understand that the whole bailout program and its implementation can be controversial because politics is involved and because experts have different opinions. So I’m going to refrain from pretending that I know better. Listen to the interview and read the report if you are interested. The same panel will produce two more reports on Jan. 10 and Jan. 20, 2009. I look forward to reading what they say.

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Posted on December 12, 2008 under News.

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Comments

2 Comments on Congressional Oversight Panel Report on Bailout

  1. cfs on December 13, 2008
     

    Just dropping by to say hello, long time no read you!

    Bail Out or Extortion?

    cfs

  2. Pelon on December 13, 2008
     

    Here are some additional questions I have:

    1) What is a healthy borrowing level for the economy? What were we at before the credit market started to freeze-up? Where are we now? Are we trying to prop up something that is unsustainable or trying to get the market back up to a healthy level?

    2) Did you force some banks to accept the money through direct or indirect means?

    3) What has been the impact on financial institutions who had healthy balance sheets and were in no danger of failing?

    4) How has the Treasury’s inability to provide a focused plan impacted the financial markets? Are people and institutions staying out of the financial markets because they are waiting to see if the Treasury will introduce a more advantageous plan in the future?

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