Not a Good Sign

The markets are not reacting favorably to Geithner's plan to fix the markets. As of this writing they are down below 8,000 or down 288. Losses on the Dow were down as far as 312 at one point. We'll see what the rest of the day brings but initial indications are that the Administration missed the target.

Here is the NY Times summary of the plan. Below are the main points.

• A new program, jointly run by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, with financing from private investors, to buy up hard-to-sell assets that have bogged down banks and financial institutions for the past year. The program, often described as a “bad bank,” is expected to spend $250 billion to $500 billion.

• Direct capital injections into banks, which would come out of the remaining $350 billion in the Treasury’s rescue program.

• A vast expansion of lending program that the Treasury and Federal Reserve had already announced, which is aimed at financing consumer loans. The two agencies had originally announced their intention to finance as much as $200 billion in loans for student loans, car loans and credit card debt. Instead the program will be expanded to as much as $1 trillion.

• A separate $50 billion initiative to enable millions of homeowners facing imminent foreclosure to renegotiate the terms of their mortgages is to be announced next week.

What is not addressed are the conditions for further support of the already insolvent banks and what the impact on current management are. I don't see enough pain here and the fact that the markets aren't impressed is a bad sign. We'll have to wait and see more analysis but people smarter than I.