Thursday, January 1, 2009

Dear Hank, ( a letter to the departing Treasury Secretary)


After reading a very long piece in the FT about Hank Paulson's tenure as Treasury Secretary I felt compelled to write him this letter. ( as appearing on the Huffington Post) It is my farewell to Hank. If you have been reading my blog all year you will know that I have not exactly been a big fan of the majority of decisions that this administration has made this year. In particular I was very critical at the start of the year when I wrote The Confidence Man and the Confidence Man Two ( with Deborah ) as I truly felt they had their collective heads in the sand as to what was really going on in the economy. Despite that, I do think Hank did the best job he could. I am sure there were many lessons learned as this article points out. As he prepares to leave ofice I really do wish him the best and thank him for serving this country.

4 comments:

Michael said...

I read you did not have a suggestion. for Hank, for what to do about forclosures. I have a habit of asking God, what to do, and I asked the forclosure question. The answer I got was "Rent, temporary" In other words, when it does not work to convert the loan to a conventional loan, then convert it to a temporary rental, that works for the bank and the customer. Then, if things change, convert to a convential loan, when that makes sense. Very Respectfully, Robert Michael Foster, MA, http://RecoveryByDiscovery.com

Anonymous said...

Spectacular article.

What's most amazing is that Paulson had the cojones to waltz into the halls of Congress with a three page document that was thrown together in fifteen minutes, and ask for 3/4 trillion dollars with virtually no oversight.

What's even more astonishing is that Congress, after much posturing, gave him essentially what he wanted.

No one seems to know where the money is going, except for the fact that none of it seems to be going into loosening any credit up.

SC Capital said...

Stone,
A few things....
1) Proposals are rarely more than a few pages... The business and implementation plan is much longer and includes more detail then the general public would understand.
2) The recepients of the money are WELL KNOWN... also, this money iss a collateralized investment. The term sheets are publically available. If you can't find one, I'll sent it to you.
3)The LAST thing these banks should be doing is blindly lending it out "just because they have it". Remember, it's our money that's being used... I don't want those banks to lend MY money to anyone until the time is right... and the time is not right yet...
The best investments materialize over time...

Jacki Zehner said...

love the STUFF video on your website! I am going to BLOG on it!! I am in the habbit of asking GOD as well... it has served me well.
thanks to all of you for your comments!