Geithner Pushed for Bonus Guarantees

Via Karl Denninger's Market Ticker:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday that he takes responsibility for knowing the stimulus legislation had a loophole that would allow bailed-out insurance giant American International Group to keep its bonuses.

In an interview with CNN's Ali Velshi, Geithner said the Treasury Department did talk to Sen. Chris Dodd about a clause he put forth that would have strictly limited executive bonuses.

So Dodd was telling the truth - he was pressured by Treasury, and apparently, Geithner didn't bother to tell his boss (the President, of course) about it up front.

One of the primary reasons we have bailout mania is because of the incestuous relationships between Congress, the executive branch, and big business.  The purported outrage that we've heard from Washington this week is complete and utter bullshit, amounting to the protestations of a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  Besides, what's a piddling $160M in bonuses compared with over a trillion dollars that Congress has voted in the past month or so to spend?  Can you say "misdirection?"

Not one of these parasites cares one whit for the impact of this mess upon the American people, except as it impacts their own ability to remain in power.  Unfortunately, when busted, they resort to populist rabble rousing as we've seen over the past few days.

Meanwhile, the Fed just voted to monetize national debt by purchasing additional long term treasury securities, which brings this year's total to about $1.25 trillion.  Washington appears to have adopted Mugabian economics.  We've seen how well that works.