Geithner's New Plan: Same Old, Same Old, Failure

So, we now have a definitive leak of the features of Geithner's plan to help the financial system, and it's the same old, same old: The problem is not that the banks are insolvent, or that their assets are worthless piles of crap, it's that the markets are just undervaluing them.

The basic provisions:

• An auction of the big sh#@pile, which is a bad thing, because it only serves to expand taxpayer exposure.
• The FDIC will lend about 85% of the money to buy this.
• These FDIC loans will be non-recourse loans, which means that if those assets bought with that particular loan would be used to repay. Any further losses would be eaten by the taxpayer.
• The Treasury will match, "the private money that each of the firms [4-5 investment firms hired by the Treasury, meaning Goldman and the rest of the usual suspects] puts up on a dollar-for-dollar basis with government money," which means that the 15% that they have to buy to get the assets is now 7½%
• The Treasury/Federal Reserve TALF lending program will be used to further expand lending to buy this toxic waste.

This is what Geithner has been pushing for a long time, some sort of program to overvalue assets at taxpayer expense, all while, "firmly against imposing any restrictions on pay for companies investing money in the rescue effort rather than receiving money from it," except, of course, any participants in this are receiving federal money because of the subsidies.

Dean Baker notes that the that unlike Timothy "Eddie Haskell" Geithner and Lawrence "Shoggoth" Summers and their Evil Minions^™, the current market values of the securities are probably accurate, because real estate prices remain 20% above the historical trend, and if houses fall another 20%, these mortgage backed securities now selling for 30¢ on the dollar, which are the very top tranches, would be near a dime on the dollar.

Paul Krugman correctly calls it, "an open invitation to play heads I win, tails the taxpayers lose," policy, and Calculated Risk and Yves Smith are similarly disparaging, though John Cole is the one who best nails the situation:

The Illness- reckless and irresponsible betting led to huge losses
The Diagnosis- Insufficient gambling.
The Cure- a Trillion dollar stack of chips provided by the house.
The Prognosis- We are so screwed."

Seriously, tag team of Geithner/Summers may very well be worse for the economy than Hank Paulson.

For your amusement, here is Rep Brad Sherman (D-CA) opening up a can of whup ass on the CNBC Wall Street apologists