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«« prior: Sanders and Galbraith on the bailout
next: Pro-EFCA mischief »»

“We just wanted to choose a really large number”

Posted by Thomas Nephew on September 25th, 2008

– Treasury spokesman to Forbes reporters, on how the famous $700 billion figure was obtained. Full quote:

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”

(Via Avram Grumer, “Making Light”) She may not feel that way right now, but that may be the best thing that spokeswoman will ever do on the job.

I’m trying to keep it light here, but this is now officially at Iraq  / WMD / Katrina-like levels of mendacity layered on incompetence layered on arrogance layered on stupidity layered on corruption. Meanwhile, Paul Krugman either knew this news already or executed one of the most awesome called shots in the history of punditry:

My sneaking suspicion is that they started with a determination to throw money at the financial industry, and everything else is just an excuse.

Well, he’s probably tied with about a half million bloggers for that one.

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One Response to ““We just wanted to choose a really large number””

  1. Prose Before Hos Says:
    September 26th, 2008 at 12:01 am

    Do They Serve Poisoned Seafood At Applebee’s?…

    “In a way, we actually do have fair trade with China: they sell us poisoned toys and tainted sea food and we sell them fraudulent securities.”
    Paul Krugman, on Bill Maher’s Show Real Time with video and full text below

    Full Exchange:…

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«« prior: Sanders and Galbraith on the bailout
next: Pro-EFCA mischief »»