TARP Looking More Criminal by the Minute by Donald Luskin on NRO Financial

What could possibly go wrong with TARP funding? The government needs the authority to save the banks. We have to pass it now!!! Something about absolute power corrupting absolutely comes to mind.

TARP Looking More Criminal by the Minute by Donald Luskin on NRO Financial

The issue of TARP corruption may now extend from corporate CEOs and federal regulators to New York’s attorney general.
By Donald Luskin

Is TARP a criminal enterprise? When a CNBC producer called me on Wednesday to see if I’d debate that question on the Kudlow Report that evening, I thought the allegation was ridiculous. How could the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Assets Relief Program to rescue the banking system possibly be compared to the Sopranos?
But now I’m not so sure. Yesterday’s sensational claims by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo — that Ken Lewis, CEO of TARP-recipient Bank of America, was pressured into what amounts to securities fraud by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve concerning his bank’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch — throws the question right into the headlines. It raises issues of corruption all around, and at the highest levels — from corporate CEOs and federal regulators to Mr. Cuomo himself.