A number of aspects of the bank bailout program presented by the Treasury yesterday troubled investors. The biggest problem was that it lacked details about how it would work.
One of the most important aspects of the plan is the “public/private” aspect to get institutional investor to buy distressed assets side-by-side with the government
The big question is why wasn’t George Soros at the presentation saying he was willing to put $100 million dollars into the program?
There are a number of people who might have been stand-ins at the press conference. Some of the executives from Blackstone (BX) or Julian Robertson could have made an appearance. But, it seems that every single major private equity and hedge fund manager was on holiday.
According to Reuters, “Money managers and private firms continue to be concerned that the new plan might be a rerun of the Bush administration’s management of the first $350 billion that Congress authorized last year for the so-called Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP.”
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner did not even bother to show that one of the key foundations of his plan had the necessary support from the private sector. That, all by itself, hurt him badly.
Douglas A. McIntrye
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