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The President stopped by the briefing room this morning to say a few words on Geithner's plan:
[T]his morning, Secretary Geithner announced the latest element in this multi-pronged approach, and that is a mechanism that he, in close consultation with the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, has initiated in order to allow banks to take some of their bad assets off their books, sell them into a market, but do so in a way that doesn't just obligate taxpayers to buy at whatever price they're willing to sell these assets; instead, involves a public-private partnership that allows market participants who have every interest in making a profit to accurately price these assets so that the taxpayers share in the upside as well as the downside.He didn't take questions, instead promising "I'll have a full press conference tomorrow night, and you guys are going to be able to go at it." I'd guess the first way they'll go at it is to ask why taxpayers are sharing so much more fully in the downside than private investors. Anyway, Obama's full remarks follow the fold.
