Friday, March 06, 2009

Maybe Obama Can Find a Cabinet Post for Bernie Madoff

The reliably evil Senator Christopher Dodd (D - Hell) is pushing a bill to let the FDIC borrow up to $500 Billion from the US Treasury. Round up the usual suspects: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair are Dodd's co-conspirators.

Let's see if I have this straight:
  • In the middle of a banking collapse, in order to encourage depositors to leave their money in insolvent institutions, the Congress votes to raise the FDIC deposit insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000;
  • The FDIC says it needs to borrow money from the Treasury because more banks are failing than FDIC's present assets can cover;
  • The US Treasury, itself bankrupt (approx. $14 - $20 trillion in debt), loans one-half trillion dollars it doesn't have to FDIC;
  • Everyone lives happily ever after.
Excuse me, but isn't this the sort of financial trickery we're sending Bernie Madoff to jail for?

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