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To: nextrade! who wrote (191649)	3/18/2009 8:29:28 PM
From: nextrade!	Respond to of 306849

Geithner gets Obama's backing Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:38pm EDT reuters.com By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama voiced confidence in U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for the second day in a row on Wednesday amid criticism over the government's handling of American International Group's bonuses and lingering delays in filling key Treasury jobs. "I have complete confidence in Tim Geithner and my entire economic team," Obama said with Geithner at his side on the White House South Lawn. "Nobody's working harder than this guy. You know, he is making all the right moves in terms of playing a bad hand," Obama said before boarding his Marine One helicopter to start a trip to California. The show of support came as Geithner absorbed some of the lawmaker and public outrage over AIG's payment of $165 million in retention bonuses on Sunday to employees of the unit that made bad bets on toxic mortgages and credit default swaps, triggering multiple U.S. bailouts now totaling $180 billion. On Tuesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs also said Obama was confident in Geithner. U.S. lawmakers, particularly Republicans, were not so supportive. Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called for his resignation. "Secretary Geithner either didn't know about the bonuses and was grossly negligent, or he did know and failed to bring this to the president's attention," Issa said. "Either way, the end result has been a significant waste of taxpayer dollars and he should take immediate responsibility and resign." At a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on the AIG bonuses on Wednesday, protesters waved signs reading "Fire Geithner." AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy told lawmakers that Geithner knew about the bonus problem two weeks ago, but a U.S. Treasury spokesman contradicted this, saying Geithner did not learn of the problem until March 10. Geithner also has faced criticism over his methodical approach to developing plans to clear problem assets off of bank balance sheets. Lack of detail in an initial outline in February caused a major drop in financial stocks. Now, the controversy over AIG has some private investors rethinking their willingness to participate in a public-private investment fund to buy troubled assets. Other Republicans were not ready to jettison the Treasury secretary, but gave him low marks for his work in his less than two months on the job. "I don't have a lot of confidence in what Treasury's doing up to now in dealing with our banking system," said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Senate Bnaking Committee. But Geithner, who faces a major test in coming days when he reveals more details about the bank asset plan, drew support from other lawmakers on Wednesday. "I think he's been doing a very good job. I think things like, for instance, the foreclosure issue, he's handled very well," said Rep. Barney Frank, the Democratic chairman of the influential House Financial Services Committee. "He inherited a tough situation."

To: nextrade! who wrote (191649)	3/19/2009 2:21:57 PM
From: Bridge Player	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

<<Be warned Ben.... The BOE executed their first "QE" operation today. The "bid to cover" was an astonishing 7.35. This means that for every bond purchased 7.35 were tendered, or made available by willing sellers. >> No, it doesn't mean that at all. Denninger has it exactly backwards. It means that for every 735 bidders, only 100 were successful in buying, since the available supply was insufficient to satisfy the demand. financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com Bid-to-cover ratio The ratio of the number of bids received in a Treasury security auction compared to the number of accepted bids. dictionary.bnet.com a number that shows how many more people wanted to buy Treasury bills than actually did buy them