Treasury Secretary Paulson has been worried about the extent to which the bailouts of Freddie and Fannie, as well as the proposed mortgage backed security purchase plan, could tie the hands of the next administration.
For that reason, he invited representatives of both the Obama campaign and McCain campaign to participate in planning the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts. According to economist Max Fraad Wolff, interviewed on Democracy Now, Obama's senior economic advisors participated in the planning of the Fannie and Freddie bailouts, while the McCain people couldn't be bothered to attend.
For McCain to pretend now that he is focused on the economic crisis, while Obama is playing politics, is about
as hypocritical and mendacious a statement that has come out of his campaign. Here is the relevant portion of the interview by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now in which she asks who was privy to the structuring of the financial rescue plan:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/9/us_bails_out_fannie_mae_freddieAMY GOODMAN: Who was privy?
MAX FRAAD WOLFF: Well, the Treasury was certainly there. OFHEO, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the group that’s done such a stellar job in regulating Fannie and Freddie over years past, they were there. Some representatives of various other government agencies, the Office of Thrift Supervision, Office of the Controller of the Currency, and select members of the House and Senate, as well as, at least by his stories,
Obama’s people were in the meeting and were at least allowed to sit in, possibly to contribute. I believe—and I don’t know if this is correct—that McCain’s people were not there but were also invited.
AMY GOODMAN:
So the campaigns were invited to be part of this. Why?
MAX FRAAD WOLFF: The
senior financial markets and economic people. Well, because a lot of what this, again, bailout does is kick the can down the road. So despite the fact that Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, has said that he’s very happy to have not passed this forward, it’s such a large series of commitments were made on Sunday, and they’re so ambiguous that this is going to be an issue going forward as more money is spent and more actions are required deep into the next administration.
AMY GOODMAN: So,
what do you mean, McCain people weren’t there?
MAX FRAAD WOLFF: As far as the story that I heard, both parties were invited,
but McCain’s people were unable to attend.
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