Treasury Seeks Authority to Buy Mortgages Unchecked by Courts

[cal04]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ae6b6P1L8E_E&refer=home

The Bush administration sought unchecked power from Congress to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from financial companies in what would be an unprecedented government intrusion into the markets.

Through his plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson aims to avert a credit freeze that would bring the financial system and the world's largest economy to a standstill. The bill would prevent courts from reviewing actions taken under its authority.

``He's asking for a huge amount of power,'' said Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University. ``He's saying, `Trust me, I'm going to do it right if you give me absolute control.' This is not a monarchy.''

(snip)
The plan would raise the ceiling on the national debt and spend as much as the combined annual budgets of the Departments of Defense, Education and Health and Human Services. Paulson is asking for the power to hire asset managers and award contracts to private companies. Most provisions of the proposal expire after two years from the date of enactment.

[Ghost Dog]

1. Huge leap of (bad) faith

... snip from the Bloomberg article ...

The ban on legal challenges of actions by Treasury is ``distasteful, it's unfortunate and it's bad precedent, but this is an emergency and you have to act,'' said Jerry Markham, a law professor at Florida State University and author of ``A Financial History of the United States.''

``What you don't want happen is to have lawsuits that will slow things down and cause problems,'' he said.

...

Bush said yesterday he's unconcerned that the price tag on the package may seem high.

``I'm sure there are some of my friends out there that are saying, `I thought this guy was a market guy, what happened to him?''' the president said. ``My first instinct was to let the market work, until I realized, while being briefed by the experts, how significant this problem became.''

The Bush administration seeks ``dictatorial power unreviewable by the third branch of government, the courts, to try to resolve the crisis,'' said Frank Razzano, a former assistant chief trial attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission now at Pepper Hamilton LLP in Washington. ``We are taking a huge leap of faith.''

...

[aquart]

3. "We are taking a huge leap of faith." Uh huh. Why?

What businessman hands over money for nothing no questions asked? You only do that in a robbery when there's a gun on you.

On edit: And then you call the cops and put the son of a pig IN JAIL.

[Hugin]

2. Ah, and here's the immunity clause another DUer was predicting.

Why are Corporatists so predictable?

and why build in immunity if what you're doing is ethical?