Treasury Update

Hey everybody -

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. As you all can imagine, things at Treasury have been absolutely crazy (and, for those of you that think I should have said "at THE Treasury," for some reason people just say "at Treasury").

These are amazing times and the list of superlatives keeps on growing:
Largest ever bankruptcy
Largest ever bank failure
Largest ever drop in the DOW (points, not percentage)
Largest ever government intervention

It's crazy to think that in the short time I've been at Treasury so much has changed in the world of finance. I've had the chance to be working on the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) team and it has been incredibly interesting. Obviously I can't post too much about what I've been working on, but needless to say it's amazing to be here. One thing I can say is that there are incredibly smart people working on this right now, and Americans can have confidence that the best people in the country are working on this huge problem. Well, the best and smartest...and me! Don't worry too much - I'm not involved enough to mess it up anyway :).

I try to read the criticisms out there to know what concerns people are having with this problem. For the vast majority of criticisms, I'm pleased to say that we have already discussed them and worked out solutions. Most of this stuff just isn't public knowledge yet, so I can't elaborate, but I'm confident that as time goes by America will see that this isn't just haphazardly thrown together, but it's a plan that has been thought through to extreme detail. I'm glad that it finally seems like people are at least understanding that this isn't just a "Wall Street Bailout" but is, in fact, a stabilization of the economy and will help people both on Main Street and Wall Street.

The link below is an article published in the New York Times back in 1999. It's about Fanni Mae and is very interesting because the author predicted exactly what was going to happen. I guess foresight in this case is 20/20.

New York Times Article