rdan (Links provided by MG) Treasury Department Releases Details on Public Private Partnership Investment Program The Role of the Federal Reserve in Preserving Financial and Monetary Stability: Joint Statement by the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve TREASURY DEPARTMENT PUBLIC ENGAGEMENTS SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF MARCH 23 � MARCH 29

Robert WaldmannDefenders of the Geithner plan argue that, even if Obama knows he will eventually have to nationalize banks, he has to show he is willing to try everything, absolutely everything, else first, so that he can convince Congress that he really has to nationalize banks. So the idea is to buy a few votes […]

rdan Dean Baker says: Wall Street and the Economy Suppose Timothy Geithner announced a new program that would tax every family $10,000 dollars and give the money to Wall Street banks and hedge funds. (Any resemblance between this hypothetical program and real world programs is purely coincidental.) We would expect the stock of Wall Street […]

Robert Waldmann A lot of the blogolandian debate on the Geithner plan is based on the assumption that there are only three options1) The Geithner plan2) Try to convince congress to nationalize banks now (real quick before they knew what hit them) and3) Do nothing. Now this is reasonable in the sense that no way […]

Following up on Robert’s post (he started later and finished earlier): Dr. Black: [T]he idea that all this came about simply because the banksters decided a bit of extra risk was good is an idea only a macro finance person could sanely entertain. All right, I represent that remark in more ways than one. So […]

Robert Waldmann Brad DeLong writes I think the private-sector players in financial markets right now are highly risk averse–hence assets are undervalued from the perspective of a society or a government that is less risk averse. Paul judges that assets have low values beceuse they are unlikely to pay out much cash. I have the […]

Robert Waldmann Shorter US Treasury “I usually shop there, but they are having a fire sale so we should go shop somewhere else” When did they hire Yogi “no one goes there anymore, its too crowded” Berra ? Direct quote of the US Treasury “a wide-scale deleveraging in these markets and led to fire sales. […]

by divorced one like Bush The OCC is: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency The OCC was established in 1863 as a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The OCC is headed by the Comptroller , who is appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a […]

rdan Daniel Kurtzman The posing and posturing hopefully will produce a partially reasonable plan for the overall benefit of US citizens. There will always be winners and losers, but let us hope the re-distribution of wealth does not continue to be mostly up the ladder. Update: Dean Baker has a take on this notion.

UPDATE: Dr. Black twists the knife. The Geithner Plan FAQ is worth reading; it’s a classic example of treating an incomplete market as if it were the entire market. And note that “skin in the game” is limited to a part of the local pool. Unfortunately, while Treasury plays in the wading pool, hedge funds […]