Fannie Mae CEO named Treasury's bank bailout chief....Why would Obama think this is a good idea?

Question

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House turned to an experienced former investment banker Friday to run the federal government's $700 billion bank rescue effort, selecting the head of mortgage giant Fannie Mae as an assistant Treasury secretary.
Herbert Allison Jr., Fannie Mae's president and CEO, will replace Neel Kashkari, a holdover from the Bush administration.

Allison, who must be confirmed by the Senate, would bear the title of assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability and counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
He would be in charge of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the fund that has injected billions of dollars into banks in hopes of unclogging credit. He would inherit a program that has been sharply criticized in Congress and which banks have come to view warily because of the restrictions attached to receipt of its funds.
President Barack Obama's administration has been slowly filling Treasury positions, hindered by candidates who have either withdrawn from consideration or been caught up in the vetting process.

Allison's selection presents the administration with yet another challenge. If Allison is confirmed, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be without chief executives. David Moffett, formerly Freddie Mac's CEO, resigned in March.
In Allison, the White House selected a former Merrill Lynch investment banker who became chairman of the retirement fund manager TIAA-CREF. Allison served as finance chief for John McCain's 2000 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. But politically, Allison has shown himself to be bipartisan in his allegiances, contributing to both Democrats and Republicans, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Since taking over in September at Fannie Mae, where he took no salary, Allison, the son of an FBI agent, developed a reputation for open-mindedness with consumer advocates, even those who have had an a contentious relationship with the giant company.
"Mr. Allison is well-positioned to lead the TARP," said Scott Talbott, chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, an industry group. "He has a wealth of experience with buying, selling, protecting, and managing assets to protect the taxpayer investment and strengthen the economy."

Some industry officials said that by pulling Allison away from Fannie Mae, the White House was signaling that TARP would remain a viable component of the government's stabilization efforts for the financial industry, even in the face of hostile lawmakers and wary bankers.
Bert Ely, a banking industry consultant in Alexandria, Va., said Allison has the advantages of being a known quantity to the Obama administration who is "much more of a financial heavyweight" than Kashkari.
Plus, he said, the new job would likely be more of a challenge than running Fannie and Freddie, which have been operating under tight government oversight since last September. "In this new situation, he's going to be much more of a policymaker," Ely said. "I can understand why he would want to take it."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97KG33G2&show_article=1

Answer 1

He is not stupid. He is setting us up to fail. The poor and the middle class will go first .

Answer 2

It is kind of cynical, but Obama knows if this fails, he can sit back and blame it on others without having to absorb the political liability in the polls and he can also sell his socialist solution of "only the government" can get us out of this.

Personally, one would think getting the best man for the job would be the mantra in this situation, but Obama only wants a butt in the seat.

Answer 3

because he comes with excellent qualifications and banks issuing bad loans and packaging them with good loans when they sold them to Fannie and Freddie had nothing to do with the CEO.



AIG, Lehman brothers, Indymac, and others issuing 30 trillion in credit default swaps also had nothing to do with the CEO of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Matter of fact they would have been in great shape if gas wouldn't have hit $4 a gallon causing Americans problems paying their mortgages, resulting in mortgage defaults, and real estate prices falling, which resulted in calls on credit default swaps and sub-prime derivatives.



That is what utlimately caused the financial system to collapse, and that what was responsible was none other than the Gramm-leach Bliley Act of 1999.

And a couple other bills Phil Gramm proposed that ultimately made credit default swaps exempt from government regulation.

Answer 4

I am not suprised, Obama enjoys rubbing our noses in it. He will hire every and any crook he can find. He enjoys screwing hard working Americans, it is how he gets his jollies.

Answer 5

Next we will get a child molester as the new secretary of education lol.



No Change, No Hope, NOBAMA

Answer 6

Because we have a population of voters that pay no attention and he knows it.



This is sort of like having the fox watch the chickens.

Answer 7

That's kind of like putting the fox in charge of the chicken house.

Answer 8

That is ridiculous...I can't believe he would even think about doing that

Answer 9

"He has a wealth of experience with buying, selling, protecting, and managing assets to protect the taxpayer investment and strengthen the economy."

Protect taxpayer investments? WTF?

Answer 10

I am sick of saying this - IT IS CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN!