The Banks Roberry

The banks epic train robbery of the US Treasury during the lame duck days of George W Bush is moving along right on schedule and picking up speed. Who could not see this one coming from way down the tracks, yet here it is running us down to the tune of $74,000 per US household. And on it rolls with Goldman Sachs in charge of the chicken coup and Congressional limp wimps watching every which way to see no evil.

The head of a new Congressional panel set up to monitor the gigantic federal bailout says the government still does not seem to have a coherent strategy for easing the financial crisis, despite the billions it has already spent in that effort.

Elizabeth Warren, the chairwoman of the oversight panel, said in an interview Monday that the government instead seemed to be lurching from one tactic to the next without clarifying how each step fits into an overall plan.

That's because it's a scam, it's not that they don't have a plan, it's just that they don't want you to see it.

“You can’t just say, ‘Credit isn’t moving through the system,’ ” she said in her first public comments since being named to the panel. “You have to ask why.”

If the answer is that banks do not have money to lend, it would make sense to push capital into their hands, as the Treasury has been doing over the last two months, she continued. But if the answer is that their potential borrowers are getting less creditworthy with each passing day, “pouring money into banks isn’t going to fix that problem,” she said.

That's the scam, to give the banks the money for keepers. So, there you have it, just what we need another Congressional oversight panel, and this one doesn't have a chance to be any better than the any other.

A Harvard law school professor and a consumer bankruptcy expert, Ms. Warren was named by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to the new five-member panel, created as part of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP, enacted in October. She was elected chairwoman at the group’s first meeting last Wednesday.

In that role, she will have a strong voice in shaping the mission of the panel and the content of the regular reports it will deliver to Congress as long as the TARP exists.

The panel’s power, as sketched out in the law, extends a bit beyond the “bully pulpit” but falls far short of a veto over specific proposals or programs. Its main source of influence is that it will have the ear of lawmakers who can tighten the bailout purse-strings or rewrite its charter.

Just as fears of a recession are turning into a depression watch, at the critical time when the country needs forceful righteous group devoted to staving off the next great depression Congress delivers another oversight panel and a perk for a Harvard professor. And oversight is only a part of the name according to the GAO.

The US Treasury's new 700 billion dollar financial rescue program has serious accountability and transparency problems, a congressional watchdog said Tuesday.

The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which has poured billions of dollars into financial institutions and through its capital purchase program (CPP), needs improvement, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said.

"Treasury has yet to address a number of critical issues, including determining how it will ensure that CPP is achieving its intended goals and monitoring compliance with limitations on executive compensation and dividend payments," the GAO said in a 72-page report to congressional committees.

Yea the GAO doesn't like that Congressional oversight committee either that's why they say to work with bank regulators.

The GAO recommended that the Treasury work with the bank regulators to establish a systematic process of determining and reporting "in a timely manner" whether financial institutions' activities are generally consistent with the purposes of the CPP, and to help ensure an appropriate level of accountability and transparency.

It really doesn't matter what anyone in government does, the fix is in and the TARP is out and every last dime will be ripped off by the bankers and their lame duck.