Taking Care of His Own

Ian Welsh at FDL has an initial look at the new Geithner plan for the banks and let's just say it isn't too nice. It is a worthwhile read but here is the operative paragraph.

In other words, taxpayer money will be used to prop up banks. The same executives who caused the problems will be allowed to continue paying themselves huge bonuses for destroying the economy and bankrupting their banks and they won't be forced to use the money to lend to actual consumers. Nor will shareholders be replaced so that taxpayers investing hundreds of billions and taking on trillions in risk can have all the upside instead of all the upside[sic] (yes, they'll probably get some shares. They should get 100% ownership. You should get 100% ownership. It's your money Geithner's spending).

I can't say this really gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. This is not what I expected from an Obama administration.

Note: I think that second upside should actually be "downside"