Low Staffing Strains Feds' Rescue Plan

(NEWSER) - Anybody seen $700 billion? The government watchdogs charged with overseeing TARP spending don't seem able to answer even basic questions about where the money went, Chris Adams writes at McClatchy. A special inspector general, a congressional panel, and eight other inspectors general are supposed to be keeping track of the funds, but they haven't been given the tools to do the job properly, Adams writes. More»

Ex-Goldman exec coddled firm as Treasury sec, critics say

(NEWSER) - As a former Goldman Sachs exec, Henry Paulson vowed to avoid any potential conflicts of interest when he was appointed President Bush’s Treasury secretary. But seven months after he left office, the nagging questions surrounding Paulson’s tumultuous term in office suggest he may not have succeeded, Gretchen Morgenson and Don Van Natta Jr write in the New York Times. Critics remain suspicious of Paulson’s role in engineering a bailout for Goldman creditor AIG and dozens of conversations with his successor at Goldman. More»

(NEWSER) - Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson may have leaned on Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis too heavily last year when he tried to back out of a deal to acquire Merrill Lynch, say congressional investigators. In fact, a GOP briefing document says the two Bush officals "put a gun to the head" of Lewis "in order to force through a merger, even though (Lewis) felt it was his duty to his shareholders to try his luck in the legal system and back out of the deal,” Politico reports. Lewis appears before a House panel today. More»

Treasury spent $254B for a $176B value, Congress learns

(NEWSER) - Henry Paulson overpaid for the preferred stock he bought from banks with TARP funds, after promising Congress he wouldn’t, a congressional oversight panel says. The government handed banks $254 billion in exchange for stock that was then worth just $176 billion, the Washington Post reports. “Treasury simply did not do what it said it was doing,” the chairwoman of the panel told Congress yesterday. More»

Obama team wants to cover homeowners, small business

(NEWSER) - The incoming Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, is conducting a top-to-bottom overhaul of the $700 billion financial rescue program passed by a skeptical Congress last fall. Geithner and other Obama advisers will expand the program to cover small businesses, municipalities, and even homeowners before asking Congress for the second tranche of the bailout, the Washington Post reports. The new approach will be laid out publicly before Geithner's confirmation hearing next week. More»