Hiding the Bailout
Everyone has their two bits worth. Mine: Aside from the whole thing being incredibly vague and relying far too much on the Secretary's "discretion," this passage from the CBO's description is egregious.
…the federal budget
would not record the gross cash disbursements for purchases of troubled
assets (or cash receipts for their eventual sale), but instead would
reflect the estimated net cost to the government of such purchases
(broadly speaking, the purchase cost minus the present value, adjusted
for market risk, of any estimated future earnings from holding those
assets and the proceeds from the eventual sale of them).
It is license for intentional obfuscation of the very worst sort, and an invitation to
government and corporate lying, cheating, stealing, and collusion.
Just give us the facts, please. You can give us a prettied-up version as well, but without the basic numbers we can draw no conclusions as to the veracity of that version.
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Yikes!