It is old news that Henry Paulson forced major banks and brokerages to take TARP money at meetings on October 13 of last year. But, it is nice to have documents that show how it happened.
The national media did not get its hands on the smoking gun. A group called Judicial Watch came up with transcripts of the gathering. The information confirms that Ben Bernanke was in the room along with several other senior government officials.
Paulson was able to get signatures from the bank CEOs who attended the meeting to take a total of $125 billion among them. Paulson could not be positive that all the firms need the money so he simply solved that problem by making certain that none of them opted out.
Paulson and Bernanke clearly felt that the entire US banking system was on the brink of collapse. Under those circumstance it is hard to imagine that they had a wide array of options. Beating on the bankers was expedient. It only took a few hours and it probably accomplished what it set out to do. With the exception of Merrill Lynch, each financial firm represented at the meeting is still in business.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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