Report on Bank Capital Injections is Fun Reading
The new special inspector general report on emergency capital injections into U.S. banks is fun reading. That said, not much should come as a surprise given the circumstances, pace, mad times, etc.
In particular, many will make much of a passage mid-way through showing that while Treasury Secretary Paulson said that all the original nine banks accepting TARP capital injections were fine, the truth was otherwise. The Fed and Treasury were worried about some of those banks. Ergo, Paulson lied, right?
Well, I suppose, but that is a somewhat academic point, as even the auditor concedes. Paulson could hardly have been expected to make an awful situation worse by pointing out that some banks were in even dodgier shape than people knew, thus making their situation more dire. Granted, Paulson could have used more nuanced language, but in the circumstances if this is the biggest concern coming from auditing the capital injections then this constitutes passing with flying colors.
Check it here.
