Thursday, October 30, 2008

It's Still Hoover Time At The Bush White House

This detail looks good:

To attract financial institutions to the program, the government would then guarantee to repay the lender for a portion of its loss if the borrower defaulted on the reconfigured loan - WaPo


Looks smart. To avoid perverse incentive to push everyone into 'default', some residual risk is left with the lender.

And, of course, it's still Hoover time at the White House:

While Treasury and FDIC officials have reached an agreement on the principles of the program, the White House is resisting, according to the sources, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are ongoing.


PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB


It did take team Bush almost all of 2006 to come up with the notion that a "surge" was needed, as the conflagration in Iraq grew and grew and grew. As late as November, Bush said he wouldn't be rushed into a decision ... he even showed "leadership" by waiting for the election result to finally dismiss Rumsfeld.

*Lives* were in the balance, then. What does that say about how important they think this is, now?

My guess? The White Houses's banking and real-estate lobbyists are looking for ... a way to bake in a "killer" loophole that is hard to see in advance.

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