“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
Kind of OT Update: McCain – ““I believe we can still balance the budget,” he said. “I think that it is restraint of spending, and I think it’s growth of government and the economy, and the recovery of our economy.” Is McCain calling for government growth?
Update II: You knew this was coming, right?
Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.
Atlliberal
Do we really want to give the same people who created this mess total control over the “solution” without any oversight?
I think we have collectively lost our minds if we fall for this. I think there needs to be a bailout, but more importantly there needs to be accountability for the incompetence and greed that put us in this position, and there needs to be oversight so that it doesn’t happen again.
We should NOT be rushed into spending over a trillion dollars without looking at the details. These are the same people who sold us the Iraq war.
Fool me once shame on you….you can’t get fooled again!
boo-yah
So…everyone Paulson hires to blow through $700,000,000,000 will be above the law.
Imagine that. Maybe the sharp kids that ran the Iraq CPA are available. They have experience in stuffing suit cases with money, when no one’s looking.
Karmakin
Well it’s pretty simple. If you come up with a plan where the investment banks can go back to business as usual the very next day….
You’re doing it wrong.
Napoleon
So how long before the first post blaming the whole crisis on dark people, on the basis of a law passed over 30 years (CRA), even though Phil Gramms deregulation bill was passed just months before the whole housing bubble began to grow (but Phil is white so him and his banker buddies can not be at fault)?
By the way, contacted both my Senators and Representatives this morning and e-mailed people I though would do the same, or at least think of it, with links to items explaining why it is such a bad deal. Everyone should do the same.
timb
Nah, just keeps the investment bankers from suing to find out why Treasury didn’t buy their portfolio or some group of gadflies (like me) from suing to say they picked the wrong loan as a political payoff.
Limiting the Judicial and Executive branches from gumming up the works seems yucky, but, if you want this thing done quickly, then you place authority with the Treasury Secretary and, of course, Congress. Luckily, this Congress is very assertive and strong…
Oh, no, you’re right, this is very scary. Unelected Treasury Secretaries with the power of a god and a pliant congress at his/her feet.
Dennis - SGMM
The reason that the administration floated this insane proposal is that they know they can count on our spineless Congressional Dems to bargain them down to something merely reckless, futile and unaccountable.
Bushco and the bankers will get exactly what they really wanted in the first place. Dems will pat themselves on the back for standing up for the American people and David Broder will write several columns extolling the virtues of bipartisanship.
Brian J
Even if he eliminates all discretionary spending, is there any way for him to come even close to balancing the budget?
I’ve seen at least a few reputable conservatives do this, even though the CRA doesn’t look like the driving force behind this mess. It seems like it was too small to make a big difference. This doesn’t mean that it will be a racial attack, but rather an attack on people without money, or something close to it.
I know I keep bringing this up, but there needs to be a call for a transaction tax right now. Why can’t the goddamn congressional Democrats sell it to the American public with the simple line, “If they want bail outs, let them pay for it”? As Dean Baker told me, there are no arguments against it that would pass the laugh test.
Dennis - SGMM
It’s inconceivable that Paulson would shower huge amounts of this money on swing states just before the election. Nope, Republicans would never use the money as a political Weapon of Mass Distraction because they never, ever, politicize anything.
maxbaer (not the original)
Quiddity
What’s rich (literally) is that the Treasury Secretary will delegate the management of the bail-out to private firms. In fact, very likely the same firms in trouble, the reasoning being that they know their own books best.
It’s a total fraud. I’m actually rooting for those paleo-conservative Republicans in the Senate (Bunning!) to filibuster or do whatever it takes to kill the Paulson Plan.
Napoleon
Somebody posted states or links to stats in an earlier post and CRA loans are not even not the driving force but are better then the average loan, so in effect they actually make it better then it would be otherwise.
Joshua Norton
Hey, hey! Now is not the time for partisanship! Now is the time to do something that only Republicans will like.
liberal
Napoleon wrote,
I did the same. While I love reading and writing here at B.J. and other blogs, calling Congresscritters is much more effective. (Not that it will necessarily be enough, unfortunately.)
NonyNony
I believe the phrase you are looking for is “class warfare” – the guys at the top are trying to get the guys in the middle to blame the whole thing on the guys at the bottom. This is a tactic that works very well for the guys at the top, so they’re going to keep using it until the guys in the middle figure out that they’re being played. (I’d argue that many of our race problems in this country stem from this very dynamic where the guys at the top added a step of getting the white guys at the bottom to blame the black guys at the bottom for their misery. Just to make sure that the white guys and the black guys at the bottom didn’t compare notes, join forces, and cap the guys at the top at their kneecaps).
See, I don’t know why folks think that there’s a problem on Wall Street. They seem to be doing fine. If they weren’t looking for a way to profit off of misery I’d start to get worried. Since they seem to be doing fine maybe we can slow the fuck down for a few minutes and not make yet another stupid decision in a state of scared panic.
SGEW
Interestingly, the Paulson Plan (aka “Cash for Trash” or “Authorization for Use of Financial Force”) is getting a lot of criticism from both sides of the aisle. Paleo-conservatives hate it, libertarians hate it, progressives hate it . . . who the hell is in full favor of it?! (besides our congresspeople)
I can’t think of another policy that has so angered people of such different political backgrounds. When Redstate, Kos, Kristol, Krugman, Malkin, and Cole are all filled with a very similar, deep, seething loathing of something, who’s left to defend it?
Can anyone think of any other issue where there’s been such overwhelming multi-partisan opposition?
SGEW
Glenn Greenwald, Newt Gingrich, Atrios, and Michelle Malkin all agree on something.
To quote The Onion:
KSMIAMI
SGEW – The bail out just doesn’t pass the smell test with any sentient being. I mean no oversight for 7x10nth power? Come on. I knew they were liars and thieves but I am rather shocked at how brazen the money grab is…
SGEW
That still doesn’t explain Malkin.
TenguPhule
She wouldn’t get any of the Money.
And Wallstreet can afford higher class hookers.
TenguPhule
Someone should remind Paulson that we have a fine tradition of executing Dictators in this country.
Just saying….
Glocksman
Being fair to Malkin, she’s pretty much been against any kind of bailout, or as she puts it, ‘stimuluspalooza’.
Still, it does feel kinda like Bizarro World, doesn’t it?