Bank Bailout Chief Gelded

Neel Kashkari, the holdover from the Bush administration who is running the Wall Street bailout program (TARP), is unable to be effective in his job because it’s known that he’ll be leaving it soon, the Washington Post reports.

Reporter Daniel Wagner writes

Perhaps Treasury’s highest-profile effort — its management of the $700 billion financial system bailout — is still led by Neel Kashkari, a Bush administration holdover who officials said is on his way out.

[Former Bush Treasury spokesman Tony] Fratto said that makes it impossible for Kashkari to engage in real negotiations with banks. He said the bailout has been hurt by “uncertainty over what the policy is, the details, whether they’re going to stick, whether the programs are going to change again — and these are all things that Neel probably can’t answer for them, and no one can answer for them.”

So TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) is moving slowly. That’s probably a good thing for America.