Nan Trout summary on the Charlie Rose show regarding President Obama's initiatives to solve the financial services problem-Video
Video of Thomas Steyer on the Charlie Rose Show
After a half hour of doom and gloom about President Obama's initiatives to solve the financial services problem by folks along the Northeast Corridor, Charlie Rose turned to a Left Coast expert for a different perspective.
Thomas F. Steyer, founder and Partner of Farallon Capital Management LLC, was up-beat about what the administration has been doing - what a cool breeze! Just what you'd expect from someone who names his company after islands just outside the Golden Gate!
Steyer, whose clients are mostly foundations and college endowments, is used to thinking long term. He appreciates the steps the Obamatons are making one by one - all in the right direction. He thinks the program is very well thought out, the regulatory boards (the Fed, FDIC and Treasury) are working systematically on several fronts, and is puzzled that critics seem to want to jump to the final step before finding out who is solvent and who isn't.
Having actually dealt with the Japanese, Steyer is impressed at how quickly the government is moving and that the Obama economic team has had a handle on the size of the problem from the moment they got into office. The program is a work in progress, constantly tweeked and adopted, and we are moving through the mess rationally.
The upcoming test will be whether the assets (that is mortgages and other collateral) actually move to market. The effort is our best chance to find buyers and sellers. We've now moved from the point where we were taking crisis decisions on the fly and now are working methodically through the tangle.
I have a lot of confidence the Administration is preparing to take over banks when necessary, but they will not do it until they have analyzed the situation They have understood that the crisis is society-wide and that it will take complex timing, a pricing mechanism and a stress test to solve the problems, said Mr. Steyer at the end of the evening. The country needs to take meaningful ownership in this recovery because we need to actually benefit from the reform so that we can pay our debt.
This country is definitely NOT in denial. As Winston Churchill once remarked, You can always count on the United States to do the right thing after they've tried everything else.