US Treasury delays bank bailout announcement
US: The Obama administration on Sunday pushed back until Tuesday the
announcement of a keenly awaited bank rescue plan as it pressed
lawmakers to settle their differences over a huge economic stimulus
package.
“We’re focused on working with Congress to pass an economic recovery
bill so we can create the jobs and make the investments necessary to get
our economy moving again,” Treasury Department spokesman Isaac Baker
said.
The bank rescue plan — which will seek to shore up some of the
biggest commercial banks in the United States — had been due to be
announced on Monday. But the Senate is now expected to be focused on
that day on a massive economic stimulus ahead of a vote on Tuesday. For
that reason, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had postponed release
of the bank plan until Tuesday, Baker said in a statement.
The stimulus and the bank rescue plan are key parts of President
Barack Obama’s strategy for tackling the deepest financial crisis in the
United States since the Great Depression.
Shares in major U.S. banks such as Bank of America and Citigroup have
been volatile in recent weeks on speculation about the contents of the
financial rescue plan.
White House National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers said
the administration wants to keep lawmakers concentrating on the stimulus
plan. “There’s a desire to keep the focus right now on the economic
recovery program, which is so very, very important,” Summers said on ABC
television’s “This Week”.
Summers urged lawmakers to craft quickly a compromise on competing
House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus bill that could be
worth over $800 billion and which the White House hopes will create 3
million to 4 million jobs.
Even after the Senate votes, the stimulus plan must still go through
final House of Representatives and Senate negotiations before it can be
sent to President Barack Obama to sign into law.
Treasury chief Geithner had been scheduled to detail on Monday how
the administration plans to use the $350 billion remaining of the $700
billion so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) financial bailout
program.
Banks worldwide have been laid low by huge losses on U.S.
mortgage-related debts. The scarcity of credit is choking the U.S.
economy, which is mired in a deepening recession.
The Bush administration used the bailout program primarily to inject
capital into banks in order to keep them from crumbling.
Obama’s team is now turning its efforts to cleaning up the “toxic”
assets clogging the financial system and it is expected to propose a
range of measures including further state
Washington, Monday, Reuters |