Bail-Out

A five-member congressional oversight panel is releasing the findings of their study of the Treasury Department's $700 billion bail-out package today.  The findings report that the plan has no clear goals, poor mechanisms for oversight and "significant gaps in the Treasury's ability to track hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money."  

Of central concern to the bipartisan panel was the plan's complete avoidance in dealing with the massive amounts of foreclosures and borrowers struggling with homes worth less than their mortgages cost.  

Their were also no means of guaranteeing that the money lent to credit-lending institutions would in turn be lent out, the declared goal of the program.  

This is sure to stoke the deepest fears of government-big business collusion.  Financial institutions were given a cash injection with no monitoring of where that investment went, saving themselves and doing very little for the taxpayer.  

If it isn't corruption, it is somehow a surprisingly resistant strain of belief in trickle-down economics.  We need to get beyond this.

Obama's transition team is working hard on fixing the future of the bail-out, as is Rep. Barney Franks (D-Mass.), who has worked on legislation to require closer monitoring of aid packages and restricting executive bonuses.  Go get 'em Barney.