Is this by Helen Conly or Kara Altshuler or both ?

"...meanwhile GM workers laid of for 1.5 months starting Dec. 24" (Sob, Sob, Sob)

Comment: They are "laid off" at 95% pay!

"... and hunger reaches epidemic proportions in the world's richest country."

Comment: Are you quoting the article ? ... 'cause it doesn't say that ? ...or are you simply expressing an opinion ?

Comment: Isn't it about time to change the " About this Blog" nomenclature at the top ?

Juan,

You are quite right, it is about time to change the blog info. We're working on that now. The hunger comment is an opinion, I can understand that it would be confusing, following the discussion on GM layoffs. But a quick Google search provides the fact underlying my statement.

I'm wondering if you have any comment about the other point I made, about Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson lying to Congress, while changing the wording of the bailout bill, and allowing the banking execs who took charity from you and me to still get $20 million plus in individual bonuses for 2008? Do you think lying to Congress or getting money for running a bank into the ground is acceptable?

Thanks so much for taking the time to read the blog, and I hope you continue to visit and provide input throughout 2009.

Kara

Hank Paulson stated the original plan to purchase distressed mortgages from Wall Street was less effective, under the evolving circumstances, than injecting the money directly into weakened financial firms; that the time required for buying the troubled assets would take too long under the current conditions. It took 2 weeks while Congress considered the legislation - during that time things got worse. 40% of securitized credit is outside the banking system - like AMEX. They needed very immediate injections. He said the original TARP program, crafted with Congress' input, didn't address the crisis with the immediacy required. As of mid-November, $118 billion had been allocated. Treasury is considering dozens of bank applications. They do not want to buy assets of banks that won't make it. They also do not want to buy bad mortgages. they do want to development loan modification programs such as was set up with Indymac. That is working.

My point is that Paulson is running a game of Three-card Monte. Tell Congress you need the money for loans, but switch the plan to allowing banks to buy each other up (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/business/25nocera.html?fta=y). I happen to think that's a very bad idea, but that's for a different thread. Meanwhile, no loans from banks means small businesses don't make payroll, can't buy more resources to make stuff, and people sit tight and don't max out their credit cards at Macy's at Christmastime. Economy starts big downward spiral, and now we need ginormous economic stimulus from government to tune of $800 billion smackeroos.

My original point was that Paulson is a lying liar, but he will not be punished for it, just as no other liar in this admin has been punished. TARP was modified by the WH and Paulson specifically to bypass the restriction on executive compensation, which is excessive by anyone's standards http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/executive_bailouts
Even if the banks have announced to the press that they are restricting pay now, many execs deferred their compensation until this Spring, and there have been reports that the payouts will be big as ever--plus, who's going to remember in April what was promised in November? Once again, bank execs will be compensated enormously for engaging in extremely risky behavior and losing sums of money not easily imagined by the Average Joe the Plumber.

Congress gave Paulson broad authority to put the money where Treasury saw fit because he was "supposed to be" more nimble and could respond quickly (which is what Paulson said he needed). The GAO's December report informed us how bad a decision that was. The bait and switch act that Paulson has going just puts paid to the perception by many of us "regular folk" that this is just one more (among many that have occurred over the last 8 years) huge transfer of money from the middle class to the wealthy (see the Inspector General's investigation into bailout money given to City National Bank of Beverly Hills, for example). Paulson clearly has no crystal ball, and isn't even that good at his job--e.g., he was dead wrong on the health of the economy in Summer 2008. Given his abysmal performance this fall, I don't understand why Congress is not demanding he be more forthcoming now. We're all just waiting out the clock.

To: k. alt.. Your Democrat friends gave Hank the authority. Why aren't you yelling at them, calling them stupid, ..........

Not only that, Juan, but, lest we forget, wasn't it also the Dems who backed Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac to the hilt, refusing to let any regulation of these two institutions that we're showing clear signs of failure several years ago?

Democratic members of Congress received over $2.7 million in campaign contributions from these 2 organizations. Hmmm...

I think Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and Maxine Waters ought to be ashamed of themselves for this.

The Democrats who wrote the legislation did not authorize Mr. Paulson to change the wording. I do fault Congressional Dems for thinking that a Republican Cabinet member would follow through on what he said he would do without strict oversight and loophole-proof legislation--apparently they haven't learned some lessons over the past 8 years of lies, obfuscation and under-oath testimonies full of "I don't remember....."

Yes, this is Democrats doing what they do best -- pointing fingers. They refuse to own up to their involvement and complicity in the financial meltdown, yet their fingerprints are all over it.

After today, when the coronation is over and all the "change" and "hope" signs have been dismantled and the Kool-Aid dispensers have been emptied and put away, President Obama will have the opportunity to work with this Congress and implement all the changes that he has been liberally espousing throughout the campaign.

I have two words for him as he goes about this difficult task -- Good luck!

I see the Republicans don't think much of his economic give-away, er, stimulus, plan. Welcome to the Oval Office, homeboy. It's lonely at the top, eh?