The Song Remains The Same

Why does Tim Geithner still feel its his duty to speak about the economy? I understand that he is the Treasury Secretary, but shouldn't he at least ask Goldman head Lloyd Blankfein if its OK to offer his opinion to make sure what ever he says... it jives with Goldmans Trading Book? Even today, he states that the "economy even though its getting better, it will take considerable more time for people to feel better about the economy". That employment "likely will get worse". The last time I checked, 2/3rd's of the economy is consumer spending, if employment is going to be weaker, where do you see any pickup in the general economy?

Tim Geithner has no business talking about the economy regardless of his position when he and the Treasury are in total denial over the severity of the crisis. The Treasury is completely out of its depth and seems to be trying to put off painful drastic action by pretending that the banking system is still viable.

Its a total sham, a ruse, and a joke because the Government is down to its last $100 Billion of the original $700 Billion in TARP Funds. They know for certain, they cant go to congress and ask for any more money without serious political fallout. So they come up with bogus stress tests and the such to placate the masses. They think they are doing this for the greater good for society.

Why cant the US just bite the bullet like the British have done? Why not accept that the crippled lenders need be nationalized? Why keep putting a band aid on a surgical wound? At least the British are not hiding the bail out.

The Treasury, Government, and Federal Reserve Board, along with Private Equity and Hedge Funds are totally deluding themselves in hoping to go back to business as usual after the trauma we have gone through the last 18 months or so.

This is not a normal recession and there will be no V-shaped recovery. There will be a long U-shaped recovery. The credit crisis destroyed anything that had to do with leverage. Leveraged companies in any sector was taken apart. Any type of Hedge Fund/LBO Fund/Private Equity Fund/ARB Fund that had any leverage was destroyed. Also there are many leveraged LBO Funds that are going into default because they cant refinance their existing debt. Alpha/ARB Hedge Funds have been making money by gambling on excess leverage, they too will get blistered.

The US Government has thrown 30% of GDP at this crisis, with little or no real effect. This is compared to 8% in 1930. The Fed's balance sheet has swelled from $900 Billion to $2.7 Trillion. All that has happened is the banks have transferred some of their toxic crap onto the Feds balance sheet. But currently, absence of a total take down of the banking system, America has to do it because the only way out of this is to debase, marginalize and wreck our own currency.