Inside Paulson's Mind
Originally published in Sep. 2009
Writer Todd Purdum and Vanity Fair have published an extremely interesting piece on former Goldman Sachs CEO, Treasury Secretary and TARP terrorist Henry Paulson. Purdum had access to the Hammer for over 6 months and reveals it all to VF. The juicy revelation seems to be the admission from Hank that he knew early on that capital injections would be required instead of an asset buy. This should not be surprising. The Hammer knew all along that an asset purchase program would be impossible to create and launch quickly. But it sounded more palatable than asking for $700 billion to lend directly to the banks. So he sold TARP under a false premise and then changed the wording of the final bill. Except we knew this already. Anyone remember the language change in the final TARP legislation? I covered the story back in February but can't find it in the site archives. Phrasing was inserted into the bill which would grant the Treasury Secretary "the authority to make direct investments in troubled banks." No one noticed until a few weeks later when the policy shift toward direct investment was announced.
Click To Scroll Our List Of Recent Stories
