Lack Of Answers 'Shocks' Bailout Official

[G_j]

http://www.wmtw.com/money/18444891/detail.html

Lack Of Answers 'Shocks' Bailout Official

Official: No 'Tracking Mechanisms' On Funds

POSTED: 7:30 am EST January 9, 2009
UPDATED: 7:39 am EST January 9, 2009

WASHINGTON -- The head of a congressional panel overseeing the $700 billion bailout program said Friday that she is "shocked" that officials trying to follow where the money has gone still have many unanswered questions.

Harvard University law professor Elizabeth Warren, appearing on national television Friday as her panel released a critical report on the rescue fund, said Congress "may want to take a very hard look" at how the money has been used by the banks that got the bulk of the initial disbursements.

Warren told ABC's "Good Morning America" that the Treasury Department "didn't put any tracking mechanisms on it."
She added, "They didn't tell the banks what they had to do in order to get the money. It might be used for lending, it might be used to buy other banks ... Or it might just be stuffed in vaults and left there."

In the oversight panel's first report, released Dec. 10, the panel said it asked Treasury how banks are spending taxpayer money, how the money will combat the rising tide of home foreclosures and the agency's overall strategy for the rescue.

..more..

[Fumesucker]

1. Thank Gawd It Passed n/t

[kentuck]

2. I guarantee they will get the other $350 billion before there is any oversight...

Probably before Bush leaves office? How else are we going to save our sacred capitalist system?

[xchrom]

3. recommend -- though i'm not sure she should be 'shocked'. nt

[SoCalDem]

4. What did they EXPECT?

This is the same administration that shipped money by the pallet, to Iraq and is paying off the people who killed our soldiers..and who never accounted for Saddam's cash that disappeared..and who did not secure the munitions dumps as they raced through the desert

Why would we expect them to keep track of our tax money that they handed out to their pals, like party favors?

[G_j]

7. & the lost antiquities

who knows? maybe some ended up in the mansions of these folks

[leftofthedial]

5. but these wealthy bankers have more money than we do; therefore, they are better people.

Surely they will do the right thing and use the money wisely.

They can do a better job of spending our money than we could. They *certainly* can do a better job without some gummint bureaucrat looking over their shoulder.

Isn't it kind of arrogant of us to expect to understand the wisdom and the ways of our betters?

We should just let the "free market" work its wonders! After all, even Obama believes in the "free market."












:sarcasm:

[G_j]

6. yes, silly me

I would go splurge on a dentist appointment, or tires for my car.
Folks like us just can't be trusted with money.

[rucky]

8. Booze and hookers. n/t