“It is a good time to be me” in bailout gravy train

Those words are not mine; rather, they come from John L. Douglas, a lawyer who helped bank regulators set up the Resolution Trust Corporation in 1998. So, he ought to know!

So, too, does L. William Seidman, first chairman of the RTC, who says, “I am enjoying this.”

And, your third quote is from former RTC official Gary J.Silversmith, who says: “Fortunes will be made here, no doubt about it.”

“It is a great time to be a banking lawyer,” said Thomas P. Vartanian, the former general counsel to the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation in the 1980s, when the lax oversight it had, and loosened regulations necessitated a bailout there.

There are even more fox-guarding-the-henhouse quotes where those came from. And, the ones I pulled are not even the most egregious. (And, any time Sam Zell is mentioned in a story about money-making angles, the grubbery factor is high.)

No wonder the NYT says:

What is obvious to former RTC officials is that, like the last go around, a great deal of money will be made by a select group of investors and business operators, particularly those with government contacts. The former government officials said in interviews that much of what is motivating them is a desire to help the nation recover from this latest stumble. But they acknowledge they intend to be among the winners who emerge.

So, ignore Congressional Democrats, and Republicans, who claim they did not see the fine print on Crazy Uncle Henry Paulson's throw-a-TARP-over-it bailout request. We have wayyyy too much “bipartisanship” involved for any reform of the bailout bill now.