White House Now Plans Limited Bank Aid Package

The Obama administration has decided on a new package of aid measures for the financial services industry, including a bad bank component, and is expected to announce it next Monday, according to a source familiar with the planning.

Though government sources told CNBC that nothing has been decided, Reuters, citing a Treasury Department official, reported Secretary Timothy Geithner would unveil a plan Monday.

The plan will be “smaller” than originally expected, said the industry source, and centered around government guarantees and insurance of troubled assets””what’s called a “ring fence” concept.

“Everybody seems to like that,” said the source. “There’s a lot of internal conflict about whether this [the bad bank] makes sense … they realize they have to do something with the bad bank.”

There have been so many conflicting reports about what Mr. Geithner is going to propose I am unsure what to believe, and, even when it is announced on Monday the devil will be in the details. If this is the direction, however, it sure does not look right to me. Read it all–KSH.

Posted in * Economics, Politics, Economy, Office of the President, Politics in General, President Barack Obama, The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007--, The Fiscal Stimulus Package of 2009