Surprise-The TARP Is Stalled

I'm from the government and I'm here to help you. So goes the famous joke. Well here it is in real life.

The WSJ has an article that points out that the plan to purchase bad paper from the banks and now whomever else happens to have been stupid or greedy enough to load up on it is going nowhere. As the Journal points out they haven't even hired any asset managers. Firms who might sell their junk to the government are getting cold feet as well given the lack of clarity from those who are supposed to solve this thing.

Think about this. We went through a week of high drama, press conferences, John McCain destroying whatever credibility he ever had and endless blovation on CNBC to end up with nothing. But then again why did we expect anything else?

The best that we should expect is that they don't make this worse.

Tom Lindmark