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September 21, 2008
$700 Billion Blank Check
The Imperial Presidency continues its quest to unfetter the executive branch from the undesirable checks and balances of the legislative and judiciary branches.
In 2.5 pages, the Treasury Secretary laid out a simple ultimatum to the US Congress: give me the ability to spend up to $700 billion to buy undefined mortgage-related junk from Wall Street. I will not tell you how I will use the money, nor will I give you an oversight of the project. But you can take away this authority in 2 years if you have the (never used) balls to do so.
This is the grand plan of the imperial presidency. Absolutely zero help for cash-strapped American citizens, zero pressure on banks to rewrite mortgage terms to keep more citizens in their houses, and did I mention zero oversight on the biggest corporate bailout in American history?
Crony capitalism writ large.
Read all about it in the LA Times.
Or "Bubblenomics," in the NYT Week in Review.
Or the complete NYT coverage of the crisis.
Posted by cj at September 21, 2008 12:16 PM
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