Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are working on a way to overhaul TARP.  You might remember TARP as the $700 billion bailout that has changed often, was meant to increase lending but didn't, and was created to prevent the financial crisis from getting worse, but failed.  Pushed by Democrats and the Bush administration, it has been mishandled from the beginning, and its purpose still seems questionable.

     With Henry Paulson gone, I was hoping for some sanity in theTreasury, but it doesn't look that way.  Not only are plans being made for the remaining $350 billion, but there is speculation that hundreds of billions more may me "needed", with the total cost surpassing $1 trillion.  Of course, this spending is on top of the $819 billion stimulus which was just passed by the House of Representatives.

     I don't see how we can borrow our way out of this mess.  In many instances, excessive borrowing by consumers and businesses caused out current situation.  In the long run, I fear that unrestrained borrowing and spending will exacerbate our problems.








http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090131/ap_on_bi_ge/meltdown_geithner