Whatever Happened to Those Banks' Toxic Assets?

by Deb Cupples |  McClatchy tells us:

"In March, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled a Public-Private Investment Program in which the government and private firms would bid together to purchase toxic assets from banks, freeing them to increase lending and help revive the economy.

"The program's still not operating."

As I recall, the program some high-powered experts viewed the PPIP as a win-win for banks and big investors -- but a major downer for us taxpayers (see here and here) -- as it represented a  funneling of undeserved money to the very folks who drove our nation's financial institutions (and economy) into a deep ditch.

John Cole from Baloon Juice has some suggestions regarding the PPIP:

"Why can’t they just do with the bad assets what they did with everything else the past couple decades? Just splice ‘em up a bunch, sell and re-sell them so many times that no one knows what the hell is what, bundle them up, have the ratings agencies slap a AAA rating on them, and sell them to small towns in Georgia and Norwegian pension funds. Voila! Problem solved!

"Then have AIG insure them, and Goldman can make another ten billion in default swaps and hand out some bigger bonuses. Also, rename them- they are not bad assets, they are “Under-Priced Yields Offering Untold Riches For Offshore Overseas Longterm Speculators (UPYOURsFOOLS).” Screw you Kenny Lay! Let’s get rich, bitches! What could go wrong?" (Balloon Juice)

I just love the way John Cole makes his points. Memeorandum has commentary.

Other Buck Naked Politics Posts:

* New FASB Rules: Is the Got. Encouraging Accounting Fraud?

* Real Executive Bonuses Based on Fake Profits

* More Right Wing False Analogies: this Time re: Executive Pay Caps 

* Bank Execs Might Give Back TARP $ if They Can't Keep Bonuses

* Wall Street Execs Got Billions While Driving Economy Toward Cliff

* Executives Skate out of Economic Disaster with Millions

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