Tuesday
Jul212009
Neil Barofsky, Gentleman Inspector General (SIG TARP CNBC Video)
Former prosecutor and current Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky was a guest of CNBC's Squawk Box this morning ahead of his later Congressional testimony, which we will post as soon as it becomes available. This is an outstanding interview. Covered: bailout arbitrage, Treasury transparency, TALF, TARP, bailout totals, fungible assets, Fannie, Freddie, $23.7 Fracking Trillion in total commitments. Try to make time to see this one.
Neil Barofsky, Gentleman Inspector General (SIG TARP Becky Quick CNBC Clip)
"Treasury Lacks Transparency on TARP Expenditures."
"We're Not Making Moral Judgements. We Just Want Sufficient Information."
Jul 21, 2009 at 5:57 PM
Reader Comments (10)
The Reality-Based Community lives!
Sit down and eat your beans. Where does CNBC finds these people?
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00:46 Becky Quick: "Yeah."
[Look at Neil Barofsky's eyes after she says that. He's like, WTF?]
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00:54 Becky Quick: "You know, one of the findings that you brought up is you talked about those 360 banks that have received the TARP money. You say 110 had invested it, 52 had repaid debts , and 15 used those funds to buy other banks, which certainly is concerning, but it raises this question of the fungibility of money. How do you figure out what's the TARP funds that are being used for this versus other items?"
01:14 Neil Barofsky: "Sure, I mean I think that, well first of all, the whole point of this survey isn't really to make any moral judgments on whether acquiring another financial institution is a good or bad use of funds. OUR PURPOSE IS TO BRING THE TRANSPARENCY SO POLICY MAKER CAN MAKE THAT DECISION. As to the fungibility of money, of course money in fungible , of course one dollar is no different from any other dollar. I think what we have demonstrated in our audit and what we have been arguing now for almost six months is that although money is fungible, if you ask the right questions and put the right parameters, you can get meaningful answers."
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02:23 Becky Quick: "Steve Lies-Man has a report from Treasury that he had taken a look at some of these things and says that that estimate inflates it in a lot of different ways. Treasury has pushed back and said that there is not as much risk there and also that many of these programs were designed with fees and other charges that actually compensate the US taxpayer. What about the difference that your seeing versus what Treasury sees?"
[Treasury clearly sees all. I know, because they have an eye symbol on the back of a one dollar bill proving it. Or maybe that was meant to symbolize their myopic blindness? LOL.]
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03:45 Becky Quick: "But your numbers, your high watermarks have been tossed around by congressman as well who are saying this is the big problem with TARP. It's not just Treasury who is using these and looking at this differently. I have seen it as talking points that have been out there from congressmen as well."
[God forbid congressmen use Barofsky's report for talking points. This is a No Spin Zone! Or is it Spin Only Zone? I forget. Fox News. CNBC. What's the difference?]
03:58 Neil Barofsky: "Well this is what happens when transparency - you put the numbers out there. Our 23.7 trillion dollars is the total amount, if you add up all of the programs from inception of the various bailouts until today. We hear these numbers are inflated. These are the numbers that have been put out by the Treasury, by the Federal Reserve, by the FDIC. We have collected them in once place and we have added them up. When you do transparency, when you bring this information out and collect it, people are going to use it for different purposes."
04:24 Carl Quintanilla: "Yeah, but you are the inspector general and knowing, I mean, I don't know if you saw the circus that was House oversight last week where they took Paulson over the coals, but why would you give them a number like 23 trillion knowing what they were going to do with it; knowing how they are going to mischaracterize it?"
[Paulson deserves it you dolt! He is lucky enough to bide his time with offences such as this before investigation, indictment, conviction, and death by a firing squad or life in prison. Paulson makes Madoff look like a baseball card shoplifter.]
04:39 Neil Barofsky : "If I started doing my job and tailoring transparency and bringing summary of different programs to the American public and worrying about how is congress going to react, how is Treasury going to react, how the media is going to react, ..."
0:51 Becky Quick: "Right." [Huh?]
0:52 Neil Barofsky: "I wouldn't be doing my job."
04:53 Carl Quintanilla: "But you acknowledge that the information is going to be mishandled; used for political purposes. Yes?"
04:59 Neil Barofsky : "I don't feel, I wouldn't acknowledge that the information is going to be mishandled. The information is what it is. These are the facts. All we have done is gather public information. you can get this information probably on your own website. All we have done is put it together so that when you are evaluating the TARP, you are evaluating in context."
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05:42 Steve Lies-Man: "Mr. Barofsky, the trouble is that people [CNBC shills, Wall Street maggot shite, Washington maggot shite, and possibly Hank Paulson] think that maybe you are doing this because of whatever agenda that you may have [honesty?] and part because you say it was on page 138 of your report, but in fact that number was in your testimony that you are going to deliver today, so it was something that you pulled out of page 138 [obviously, and your point is ...]. In addition, there is a sense, at least from Treasury, that you double-counted ... [incomprehensible math on risk rather than support follows]."
Becky Quick is: (1) not interested in the facts as presented by Neil Barofsky, (2) drugged out of her freaking mind or on an earpiece, and (3) reading scripted questions as if she is trying out for a role in a remake of the Stepford Wives. Fembot in the next Austin Powers film? Good recovery attempt by not wanting to put words in Neil's mouth and wanting to understand this properly and all. Fail at the follow-up Treasury motivations bait questions.
Carl Quintanilla is: (1) disrespectful of House oversight, (2) Henry Paulson's de facto Adoring Fanboy defender, and (3) spooked that the truth is getting out and used for purposes contrary to his own and that of his corporate masters. Fail at the follow-up Issa quote bait question.
Steve Lies-Man is: (1) flustered by Barofsky 's impeccable memory of his own report, especially page 138, (2) resentful that Barofsky has not signed onto the more lucrative 'alternative to honesty' agenda as he has, (3) a creative accounting genius much better suited for the job than Barofsky , and (4) a failure at demonstrating any semblance of original or comprehensible thought.
Becky Quick, Carl Quintanilla, and Steve-Lies-Man have sunk lower than giardia feces at this point. Neil Barofsky is reporting facts and all you can do is attack him with innuendo, PR spin, and interruptions. If the permabull reporting, bank bonus and bailout cheerleading, and defensiveness of even the most egregious of Wall Street excess was not overwhelmingly repugnant enough, you have all reached new lows. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You insult the very idea of journalistic professionalism and integrity.
I was quite proud of his work, his demeanor and his polish on-camera.
I hope that segment gets you-tubed, as it would be a great addition to the DB.
-Wil
It would certainly be a nice contrast to this refuse. It seemed like Timothy Geithner himself scheduled the interview and was directing Becky & Co. DB, what do you think? Can we get a counter with this second interview Wil is referencing?
Spidey...thanks a TARP (thanks a ton) for transcribing that detailed commentary...I will add it to the body of the story when I get a minute...for now here is the newest video I put on Barofsky...from Bloomberg yesterday...
http://dailybail.com/home/more-from-sig-tarp-barofsky-bloomberg-interview-july-21-vide.html
Do you use a web service to translate video into transcripts or was it just the honest hard work, of an American patriot fighting for the remaining vestiges of truth and justice in his once proud land?
Either way, I thank you.
Did you double post this?
No, I don't use a web service to translate video into transcripts for any of my posts, hence the numerous syntax and spelling errors. You probably could get Dragon NaturallySpeaking or something like it to get basic transcripts, but it may be more effort that it is worth than by just doing it the old fashioned way. It is just the honest hard work, of an American patriot fighting for the remaining vestiges of truth and justice in his once proud land. You are more than welcome. It's the least I can do as a repayment in kind to all of your own blood, sweat, and tears on this site.
This one was difficult because Becky, Carl, and Steve speak at an accelerated rate and Steve tends to mumble and be incomprehensible to begin with. Additionally, it is difficult to follow thoughts that are illogical and meandering. They usually stress speaking clearly and in complete sentences in Journalism programs, but I guess this was lost on Steve or he just skipped the training.