The NYT misled readers about the reason that a deal for Fannie Mae to sell tax breaks to Goldman Sachs was nixed. The NYT said that the deal: "was blocked by the Treasury because it couldn’t be seen to be helping Wall Street benefit once again from the crisis."
Wall Street would have benefited from a tax giveaway. Goldman would have paid Fannie less than 100 cents on the dollar for its tax credits. This means that the taxpayers would have effectively been handing Goldman money (the difference between what it paid Fannie and the actual tax savings) for nothing. Perhaps the Treasury would do this in normal types, but that would be a statement about the corruption of the Treasury Department, not how Wall Street's bad image is hurting profits.
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