Hmmmm… the Banksters will get more money unconditionally and the automakers get screwed. It’s probably a good thing for them that the Tellers and Clerks are not affiliated with the Teamsters or something. Or they’d be screwed too. Just ask Bob Corker.

Huffington Post adds White House Lays Groundwork for Management Changes.

Get my popcorn. It’s the Ken Lewis Show.

“After nearly four months of frank, honest, and open dialogue about the failing economy,” ; never happened !! And besides, most U.S. citizens don’t want to hear the truth; they prefer to ignore and hope than to take action.

Ever since seeing Obama’s comment comparing the banksters to suicide bombers a month or two back, I’ve felt he might be up to something like that — tiptoeing toward the changes that a lot of folks on the left think need to be made immediately.

I won’t argue with anyone, though, who thinks it’s just a cover for not having the nerve to do it at all. It’s up to Obama to prove them wrong.

Meanwhile, with regard to the banks that are not Too Big To Fail, the FDIC sees a growth market in the Southeast. From an FDIC press release issued about an hour ago:

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today announced it will open a temporary satellite office in Jacksonville, Florida, to manage receiverships and to liquidate assets from failed financial institutions primarily located in the eastern states.

After conducting a competitive leasing acquisition process, the FDIC entered into a short-term agreement to lease space at 7777 Baymeadows Way in Jacksonville. The decision was based on mission needs and workload.

The new office will provide facilities for up to 500 nonpermanent staff and contractors. Staffing will be based on the workload needs of this office, based on the number of closings in the eastern states, the resulting number of receiverships, and the post-closing workload.

Throughout its history, the FDIC has used these offices to keep temporary asset resolution staff closer to the concentration of failed bank assets they oversee. As the work diminishes, the temporary satellite offices are closed.

The FDIC expects to gradually move into the space starting in mid-September 2009.

Eating banks is getting to be a very big business.

Keep going… nothing here to see!!

I love how they decided the right number in advance, what would be politically acceptable. Like the 3 bears, one number was too hot, one was too cold, and one was just right. Alas, it is still mush.

Mr. Krugman suspects Wall Street will soon carry on its unrepentent ways, with not so much as a dusting from federal regulators.

Obama seems determined to “muddle through” in an English sort of way, without consequential financial reforms. I guess $42 million in lobbying fees is good if it nets billions from the treasury and a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval to carry on until the next bubble bursts. Then the lobbying fees might have to go up. Good all round, if you’re banker.

Combine that with a moribund IRS and DoJ, and an SEC asleep about as long as Rip van Winkle, and Mr. Krugman suggests that those of us not bankers should be very, very afraid.

Pardon the o/t but Lawrence O’Donald is standing in for Ed and just finished tearing a few new holes in several torture supporters (the usual suspects). A good time was *not* had by all and O’Donald took no prisoners. :-)

I thought he did an excellent job too. Nice to see a little more of that on the tv these days. Oh. Yeah.

Jane upstairs in the Silo!
Feinstein, Specter Compromises Pave the Way For Passage of Employee Free Choice Act

Good! I’ve been watching this ever since I heard that the FDIC had some important Help Wanted signs up. I hope that they take down at least one of the 10 Big Banks that are coming up short on the “stress tests”.

But what I’m really afraid of is that momentum is slipping away for something like a Pecora Committee, and major regulatory reform (like restoring Glass-Steagall.) Geithner & Summers don’t seem to think that anything structural needs to be changed. And that really rattles my cage.

I want more visibility for Elizabeth Warren and her TARP Oversight Board. I want more aggressive prosecution from the FDIC’s legal division.

Bob in HI