I'm not sure that Paulson's current plans are any better, but remember when we were told that we should buy up the financial industry's garbage, and could (or, in the mind of some people, inevitably would) even turn a profit after a few years? If you believed it then what do you make of the collapse of Citigroup's stock? The WSJ has an explanation:
Weighing down the shares has been the Treasury Department’s decision last week not to buy troubled assets from banks. Citigroup’s balance sheet includes battered securities and loans that many investors hoped could be offloaded to the government.Go figure.
Gee, one would think that a bunch of super smart "free market types" would have figured out that if there was a profit to be made, the market would have found a buyer and no Federal intervention would have been needed.
ReplyDeleteOh, wait, they did figure it out, they just hoped (and were proven right) the American people wouldn't . . .
CWD