White House considers ownership stakes in banks

Thursday 09th October, 12:46 PM JST

WASHINGTON —

The Bush administration is considering taking ownership stakes in certain U.S. banks as an option for dealing with a severe global credit crisis.

An administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made, said the $700 billion rescue package passed by Congress last week allows the Treasury Department to inject fresh capital into financial institutions and get ownership shares in return.

This official said all the new powers granted in the legislation were being considered as the administration seeks to deal with a serious credit crisis that has caused the biggest upheavals on Wall Street in seven decades and continues to roil global markets.

Supporters of this approach, such as Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, argue that injecting fresh capital into U.S. banks who want to participate in the program would be an effective way to bolster banks’ balance sheets and get them to resume lending. Taxpayers would benefit because the government would receive an equity stake in the bank in return for providing the capital.

“This idea would, at a minimum, complement the administration’s planned approach of buying up troubled assets and may prove to be the most promising tool of all in Secretary Paulson’s kit,” Schumer said in a statement.

A decision to inject capital directly into financial institutions in return for ownership stakes would be similar to a plan announced Wednesday by Britain.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told reporters that Treasury was moving quickly to implement the $700 billion rescue effort and he specifically mentioned reviewing ways to bolster the capital of banks.

“We will use all the tools we’ve been given to maximum effectiveness, including strengthening the capitalization of financial institutions of every size,” Paulson said at a Wednesday news conference.

Asked whether he would try something like the British plan, Paulson said: “We have a broad range of authorities and tools. We’ve emphasized the purchase of liquid assets, but we have a broad range of authorities. And I’m confident we have the authorities we need to work with going forward.”

The administration so far has stressed its major goal is to purchase bad loans from financial institutions.

Paulson said that while the financial market turmoil has hurt the economy, the administration is moving quickly to begin the largest financial system rescue effort in history.

Even with the program to buy bad assets from financial institutions, he said, some banks will fail. He also called for patience, saying “the turmoil will not end quickly and significant challenges remain ahead.”

In an attempt to help stop the financial crisis from causing a global economic recession, the Federal Reserve and other central banks cut interest rates in a rare coordinated move Wednesday.

Paulson called the coordinated rate cuts “a welcome sign that central banks around the world are prepared to take the necessary steps to support the global economy during this difficult time.”

Paulson on Monday selected Neel Kashkari, 35, an assistant Treasury secretary, to be the interim head of the new program. In his remarks Wednesday, Paulson said the administration would move quickly to nominate someone to fill the job permanently.

Paulson said he was consulting with President Bush, congressional leaders and presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain before choosing someone to fill the job permanently. The post requires Senate confirmation, something Paulson predicted could occur in November.

The administration has been rushing to implement the program, which cleared Congress last Friday. Paulson said it would be several weeks before the program makes its first purchases of troubled assets.

“U.S. and global financial markets continue to be severely strained,” Paulson said at the briefing called to preview the upcoming weekend meetings of finance officials of the Group of Seven major industrial countries, the 185-nation International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The global credit crisis was expected to be the major agenda item at those talks.

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Latest 15 of 26 Total Comments Show All

Betzee at 10:15 PM JST - 9th October

I hope Carter, Clinton, Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Barack Obama and the Democrats can one day find the moral courage to squarely face and accept blame for what they have done. They will never be able to make it up to the American people but the effort must still be made.

If what you say is true, then the Republicans also owe the American people an apology for allowing the minority party to subvert the system while they were in charge. I can just hear Tom DeLay, "Yep, I should have been watching the shop instead of shaking down K St lobbyists for PAC money."

I would identify Phil Gramm as the individual most responsible for the mortgage industry meltdown. When we last heard from him, a few months ago, he was dismissing critics "as whiners, because Americans never had it so good." Has he stood up and admitted he was wrong? Nope.
yabits at 11:20 PM JST - 9th October

Great points, Betzee. If what folks like Sarge claim is actually true, then the Democrats are the first minority party in the history of the world to have so completely bamboozled a ruling party, leading it and the country into such dire economic straits. They must be the most clever party of all time. Just the idea that the Republicans could have stood by and let it all happen just proves that they deserve another four years, according to the logic advanced by the Republican excuse-makers and finger-pointers.

Unfortunately for the Republicans, a growing mass of the American people know better where the blame for this fiasco lies.
coulrophobic at 11:39 PM JST - 9th October

"If what you say is true, then the Republicans also owe the American people an apology for allowing the minority party to subvert the system while they were in charge."

The two biggest crises we have faced in years - oil prices and the need for even stopgap measures for the disastrous consequences of affirmative action carried into the housing market and Americans had no vote on either.

Blame goes to the Democrats.

Pelosi and Reid in particular.

Worst.

Congress.

Ever.
Good_Jorb at 11:44 PM JST - 9th October

It wasn't to long ago that the current Canada government tried to deregulate the Canadian banking industry and change it into a more American style, along with allowing more American banks into the systems but it failed (How lucky). As it is now, no Canadian banks have failed or have needed Government(tax payers) Welfare checks (considered to be because of conversative regulations the banks deal with), in fact the worst of banks woes have been less than expected profits. But if you don't mind living a corpate welfare state, then if it is not broken then why fix it, should work?
adaydream at 11:57 PM JST - 9th October

coulrophobic - It's the deregulation by the republicans that caused this problem, but blame the democrats.

Remember John McCain, the deregulation king? < :-)
WilliB at 12:02 AM JST - 10th October

Smithinjapan:

" Funny, but those aren't the guys in office that led things to the current crisis, "

Actually, they are. Find some deeper information than the headlines in the newspapers, and you will find that the root of the current crash is social engineering by the Democrat party, accompanied a generous corruption by various friends.
WilliB at 12:04 AM JST - 10th October

adaydream:

" It's the deregulation by the republicans that caused this problem "

Check which president removed the Glass-Steagal act, and who lifted on restrictions on the CRA. It is pretty cynical that the Democrat croonies who created this disaster now blame the other side.
adaydream at 12:18 AM JST - 10th October

WilliB - Please enjoy my little links with John McCain touting his deregulation of Wall Street. His tremendous success in giving Wall Street a blank slate to push the United States into a financial tailspin. < :-)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/16/AR2008091603732.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26831372/

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/21/mccain-deregulation/

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/23/mccain.bailout/
proxy at 12:34 AM JST - 10th October

Who is up the creek now? I'll give you a hint it starts with a "C" and sounds like "kittycorpse." I've been hearing stories about them being insolvent for 6 months.
Betzee at 04:11 AM JST - 10th October

Back in 2002-2003, when Bush began expressing his "strong dollar policy," I started moving a large percentage my dollars to accounts based in euros and CHF.

Yabits,

It sounds like you've prudently readied a lifeboat. Sometimes I feel like I'm on the Titanic, after the iceberg has been spotted, and all anybody wants to do is play the blame game not avert disaster (if that's possible).

Republicans would be on much stronger ground to blame Alan Greenspan, as many experts do, for his opposition to regulating credit derivatives. But that requires a knowledge of arcane financial activities. It's obviously much easier to go the Willie Horton route and blame the usual suspects. What a bitter pill it will be for them to swallow when Democrats register increases in Congressional and Senate seats next month, it's really only a question of how many. Presumably John McCain, who wants to be the steady hand on the tiller, will go do with the GOP ship as well.

Earlier this year my nephew, who is now eligible to vote, confided he'd registered as a Republican. We're close and he was concerned about my reaction to the news. But in fact I was happy that the party was gaining someone who isn't angry and ready to cast blame elsewhere.

I counseled the need to win on the basis of ideas, which we've spent a great deal of time discussing over the years, rather than hatch-it job attacks, which derailed John McCain's presidential ambitions back in 2000, as well as ad hominem arguments.

The last I heard he was going to do a write-in for Ron Paul. That's his business but it tells me everything I need to know about what he thinks of the Republican Party platform.
yabits at 07:10 AM JST - 10th October

WilliB writes: "Check which president removed the Glass-Steagal act"

The name of the legislation which repealed Glass-Steagall? The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

Gramm - Republican Leach - Republican Bliley - Republican

The veto-proof bill which was presented to Bill Clinton was opposed only by a few Democrats, and was a Republican creation.
yabits at 07:21 AM JST - 10th October

Betzee writes: "What a bitter pill it will be for them to swallow when Democrats register increases in Congressional and Senate seats next month..."

On CNN's Situation Room this afternoon, on a day when stocks took another serious dive, they showed a McCain campaign in Wisconsin where some of the assembled voters really vented their anger at the thought of Obama doing so well. Thinking of it in a humorous light, it reminded me of Sheriff Bart riding in to Rock Ridge for the first time.

Republican mismanagement made all of this possible. There can be no other explanation.
sdmsec at 01:16 PM JST - 10th October

I started moving a large percentage my dollars to accounts based in euros and CHF.

Not too sure about the euro, but CHF and Singapore Dollar together with some US$ is a prudent hedge for your cash. However, I think that paper is being devalued at a rapid pace right now, and I hope you also hedged some in precious metals.
SuperLib at 01:54 PM JST - 10th October

smith: Bush and Co. were 100% for deregulating things

Smith, can you provide more information on this? I'm not sure what "were for 100% deregulation" means. You're saying they wanted to remove all current regulations off of the books for the United States?
SuperLib at 02:11 AM JST - 11th October

From what I've been reading it looks like taking over some of the banking industry is what's going to happen.