Just a week after Washington officially and somewhat ironically scrapped the idea of utilizing funds from the Troubled Assets Relief Program to purchase troubled assets, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke could be found on Capitol Hill vehemently defending their handling of the funds.
Paulson, who appeared before the House Financial Services Committee, added guarantees on high-risk mortgages to the list of inadvisable uses of the $700 billion pool. FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair broke away from the administration’s official position, testifying that $24 billion of the bailout money should go to helping certain Americans avoid foreclosure, and expressing her belief that the government is “falling behind the curve”.
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