[OPE] From the high world of finance...

Inspector General: Treasury Secretary Forced Banks to Surrender Ownership
Interest to Government
CNS News, Monday, October 05, 2009
By Matt Cover

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifying on TARP -- the Troubled Asset
Relief Program (CNSNews.com) - In a new report, Neil Barofsky, the special
inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), reveals
that then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and key federal regulators forced
the nation's nine largest financial institutions to take billions in
taxpayer bailout dollars in October 2008, threatening that if the banks
refused, the government would take their stock shares anyway.

Barofsky's report, released Monday, examines the circumstances under which
the government selected the initial nine participants of its Capital
Purchase Program (CPP) bailout. The report found that the government picked
the banks because of their size and involvement in the U.S. financial
system, not because they needed the money or not.

The inspector general's report also found that federal officials, including
then-Secretary Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and
current-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner all viewed the plan as an offer
the banks could not refuse.

Complete text http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/55017 (Ron Arnold drew my
attention to this clip)
The Report
http://www.cybercastnewsservice.org/cns/webuploads/Emergency%20Capital%20Injections%20Provided%20to%20Support%20the%20Viability%20of%20Bank%20of%20America..._100509.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWAu8jZ9jiw

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Received on Tue Oct 6 18:09:25 2009