Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are more than a little frustrated with those pesky Congressional lawmakers on Capitol Hill who want more time to scrutinize the Bush administration's unprecedented $700 billion bail-out package.
Details, Details...
Congress, understandably, wants details on how the bailout bill will be structured and how the Treasury plans to spend the $700 billion. Paulson referred to the situation as an 'embarrassment for America' and reiterated the need to act quickly, stating that thousands of American banks would benefit from the injection of funds which he said would re-energize the credit markets which he argued would ultimately benefit the American taxpayers and prevent the country from slipping further into recession.
After initially requesting a scenario involving virtually unchecked levels of power, Paulson reluctantly agreed to the formation of a supervisory board to oversee allocation and investment deals. In particular, the Bush administration, has continuously rejected calls by lawmakers to put limitations on executive salaries.
Due Diligence:
I say that Congress should take all the time they need to review the administration's plan and make sure the we the taxpayers are fairly represented in this loan. After all it was the private sector that got us into this catastrophic disaster in the first place. I tend to agree with the calls to grant the government equity stakes in the troubled banks, I don't know about you, but it would be nice, since it looks like we are going to be shareholders, to be a recipient of the rewards once-in-a while rather than always having to constantly bail-out greedy bankers.
It comes as little surprise that Secretary Paulson doesn't really want these restrictive measures put in place as it wasn't too long ago that he was more than happy making $30 million a year as the former CEO of the now troubled investment bank Goldman Sachs.
Christopher Dodd, the Democratic chairman of the banking committee, said he remained deeply concerned about the precedent set by the proposed package: "I can only conclude that it's not only our economy that's at risk but out constitution as well."