notes from Tim Geithner's Feb 10 remarks on new economic plan

The transcript of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's Feb 10th speech is at [1] . There's also a word cloud form summary at [2] from ritholtz.com , created by By Barry Ritholtz:




I was just taking some notes, below.


"Without a powerful Economic Recovery Act, too many Americans will lose their jobs and too many businesses will fail. And unless we restore the flow of credit, the recession will be deeper and longer, causing even more damage to families and businesses across the country."

Okay, but how do you make sure businesses use the money to hire more workers or keep those on the chopping block? And how do you get banks to use their share on loans?


"We believe that the policy response has to be comprehensive, and forceful. There is more risk and greater cost in gradualism than in aggressive action."

=> They believe acting now is more important than thinking clearly. But I guess that is true. There needs to be a reaction without knowing how effective it will be. Let's do something rather than nothing.

I want to compare this to doing something about global climate change.


"When our government provides support to banks, it is not for the benefit of banks, it is for the businesses and families who depend on banks… and for the benefit of the country."

Thanks!


"new framework of oversight and governance of all aspects of our Financial Stability Plan."



Summary of what they will do
- new oversight : financialstability.gov to see all the numbers spent and how
- strong conditions on executive compensation.

- improve banks' balance sheets, force them to reduce their lending risk , by enforcement and force disclosure too
- also reduce their lending risk with capital from Fed with conditions they need to meet

- a new public-private investment fund to help relieve the crappy investments that are clogging the system ( up to a trillion )

- and a new consumer lending initiative ( trillion )

- also help to reduce mortgage interest rages, and reduce mortgage payments for those near foreclosure





[1] http://www.treasury.gov/press/releases/tg18.htm

[2] http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/02/geithner-rescue-plan-cloud/

Facebook is sneaky: privacy is virginity

"You are allowing AT&T[...] to access your information." Sell my private information to a corporation? Heck no. Make AT&T and whoever else my facebook friend so I can use their whatever crappy facebook application? Of course I trust them with whatever I post to my FB page! I have known them since high school right ?

We all know employers peruse people's Facebook profiles. Whether it is in their anti-discrimination policy or not, they will do it. Whose fault is it? We decided to blame the dirty and scheming subprime mortgage lenders for fooling people who cannot afford houses to adjustable-rate their way into the American Dream. Well who are we going to blame for crushing young people's privacy ? Facebook users have been called exhibitionists. So is it the fault of the users for being careless in revealing their party habits or the corporate solicitors who are using clever marketing to get the ad revenue they want?

I say, your privacy is like your virginity. If you lose it, you can't get it back. But corporations will try to violate you. Suing them for all their worth is inefficient, so we need awareness campaigns to spread the good Word of protecting your information from harm's ways and means.