Gaming Geithner
Michael Thomas points to a fascinating little primer from Breakingviews.com on how to game the Geithner plan: Gaming Geithner. A sub is required, but you can register for a free trial to read the piece. And this is only the work of a single day!
Back on February 13, I said that there was something oddly Hegelian about the Obama administration’s approach: “the hand which inflicts the wound is also the hand that heals it.” Not to question the majesty of Hegel, but a hand habituated to slicing motions probably isn’t one best suited to healing.
LBO News from Doug Henwood 
Dean Baker jumped on the gaming angle within milliseconds too, although he didn’t spell it out in glorious detail.
Maybe this is the first time for quite some time that you are on same page with Baker from the get-go, eh Doug?
Would former investment banks/now mega-banks buying subsidized toxic trash from other subsidized investment banks/now mega-banks in order to repair their balance sheets, but not so much so that they won’t qualify for yet another round of handouts when that comes to pass, count as gaming? It’s just another round of roulette, just with new rules and federal guarantors this time.
PS Did not mean to imply that Baker was on point before but you were not, only that there has been a convergence of viewpoints on this phase of the great scam.
See also (no sub), via Naked Capitalism:
http://www.interfluidity.com/posts/1237877649.shtml
Surely the whole point of this “auction” is for the government to hand lots of money to the banks in a fashion sufficiently complicated such that the man in the street won’t notice. With the private component acting as vague cover.
The alternative that the Obama team really believe their rhetoric is too depressing.