I'm not Geithner, Paulson, Bernanke, Bair, Obama or Bush, and as a result of not being anyone of these individuals I have the unique pleasure of changing my mind, without public recriminations.
My initial position on TARP was that it was necessary. That the few multinational banks who received the majority of the assets were too big to fail. Now, I'm not so sure. Why? Citi's third impending stock collapse, BofA's double TARP dip, and JP and Wells coming dysfunction lead me to believe that the injury is simply beyond triage.
Again, via my hindsight, a better position may have been to:
1. Identify the crappy multinational banks (C), insure the depositors and then let the institution fail. Their fault!
2. Recapitalize iffy banks (WFC), with usuriosness of biblical proportions. Their greed and poor risk management should be punished.
3. Cut major tax breaks for healthy regional banks (BBT), who practiced risk management accordingly, with all the legislative help possible to spur growth.
Multinational banks are like great quarterbacks for championship teams...essential. Since our current qb decided to party hard and become a drunk, it's time for us to focus on grooming our young backup.
