The "Choosen Few" Get a Conference Call with Paulson on the Bail Out

Naked Capitalism has quite the story on how Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson Gave a Conference Call to a select few Interested Parties, but a mistake was made and the public got in on the call. Oh what they are reporting!:

This is simply scandalous. To have a group of interested parties get a privileged briefing by government officials on a matter of keen public interest flies in the face of what a democracy is supposed to be about. The proper method would either be a published FAQ on the Treasury website or a briefing with the media included. But why should I be surprised? Favoritism has been a staple of the Bush Administration.

The call confirms what many who can read legislation are saying:

  1. There is no oversight
  2. They get the $700B all at once
  3. There are not limits on Executive Pay
  4. Asset Prices are not defined, can overpay
  5. Taxpayers are basically on the hook

Follow the link over to these two blogs. There are a lot of details in this conference call but bottom line, the entire bail out is a snow job, yet now our lovely Senate is hell bent to pass it. They are using the temporary stock market drop as their excuse. Hmmm, last I heard the US taxpayer shouldn't be on the hook because the markets are in correction. Guess it's the new game of risk. We privatize the reward, we socialize the ruin.

DeakBreaker broke the story, live blogged the actual call and posted notes as it was happening.

This was not meant for the public....oops, damn those Internets where often messaging cannot be controlled!

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