Geithner = "Chief Facilitator"

This is all getting fairly ridiculous. When will someone go to jail? Jeez, give us a scapegoat if nothing else. I don't know how they expect anyone to respect the law at this point. The fraud and malfeasance reaches to the very top.

Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism said: "Quite a few observers, including this blogger, have been stunned and frustrated at the refusal to investigate what was almost certain accounting fraud at Lehman." He goes on to note the possibility of "accounting fraud," noting "collusion" on the part of the Fed, ultimately condemning the activities described as the probable "aiding and abetting Lehman in accounting fraud and Sarbox violations." But we will never know for sure unless the matter is investigated, which it most likely won't be. See:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/03/ny-fed-under-geithner-implicated-in-lehman-accounting-fraud.html

Our government now regularly bends over backwards to suborn criminal activity. And when the wrong-doers are caught, not only do they not go to prison as they should, they get made whole again on the back of everyone else's money.

Obama and Geithner's Ultra-Bullshit: Moral Hazard

Moral Hazard can be defined as "the prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk."

Here's Joshua Holland on Geithner's less than brilliant plan:

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http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/134986/proof_that_geithner's_bank_plan_is_a_massive_giveaway_to_the_bastards_who_started_this_mess/

Recall the Geithner Bank Plan in a nutshell: private investors would buy those "toxic" assets off of struggling "zombie banks." The buyers would put about 7 percent of the purchase price down, and the Treasury Department would match that with another 7 or so percent. Then the FDIC would offer government-backed loans for the remainder.

If the assets were to recover their value and turn a profit down the road, the investors would split the profits with the government. But if they don't -- if their values continue to tank -- then you and I and everyone else who pays taxes will be on the hook for the lion's share of the losses.

In other words, we're limiting bargain-hunters' downside risk if they buy the banks' crap and it doesn't turn out well for them. It's a pretty sweet deal for those investors. And, as I wrote when Geithner first announced it, pretty much the definition of "moral hazard."

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And the countdown to nationalization continues...