Robert Scheer: Grand Theft Treasury: The Nation

[amborin]

"We are being robbed big-time, but you can't say we haven't been warned. Not after the release Tuesday of a scathing report by the Treasury Department's special inspector general, who charged that the aptly named Troubled Asset Relief Fund bailout program is rife with mismanagement and potential for fraud.

The IG's office already has opened twenty criminal fraud investigations into the $700 billion program, which is now well on its way to a $3 trillion obligation, and the IG predicts many more are coming. ..."


snip


"At the heart of this potentially massive fraud was the original decision of Henry Paulson, President Bush's treasury secretary and a former Goldman Sachs chairman, to not require the recipients of the bailout, such as his old firm, to account for how the money was spent.

Unfortunately, President Obama's administration continued that practice.

The only difference is that the amount of public money being put at risk is now far greater, and the hedge funds, which are totally unregulated, have been brought in as the central players. One of the largest of those hedge funds, D.E. Shaw, carried Obama's top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, on its payroll to the tune of $5.2 million last year. He may have reason to trust these secretive enterprises that operate beyond the law, but the public does not. "


<http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090504/scheer?rel=hp_picks>

[MarjorieG]

1. No good solution or remedy for this global mess, where our public isn't going to lose something.

A lot of the fraud happened with the first half.

[DCKit]

2. It's not too late to go back and audit the books.

I'll bet they'd find way more than we "lost".

[Captain_Nemo]

3. serious stuff. I am not happy about it.