Good Monday morning to you! Hope you had a good weekend.
Here on AM we started the week talking about the new plan by the Treasury Department and Secretary Tim Geithner to establish a public/private partnership to help get toxic assets off the banks' books and help them lend again. Here's a look at the actual plan.
And just as soon as it was released, the criticisms started as well. Not just from political foes but from leading economists who say it's a waste of money and a rehash of a similar plan the Bush administration's Treasury secretary floated and then backed away from. Read Paul Krugman's NY Times op-ed here.
Christine Romans told us today in one of the breaks just how much hope there is on Wall Street and in the banking industry that this plan will work. Other questions too, after getting eviscerated by Congress last week during the AIG bonus scandal, how willing a partner will some of these private investment firms be? Will they be scared away by the potential for caps on compensation if things do turn around and these assets start making money again? And what about the taxpayers? Many of our viewers asked... why does it seem we as the taxpayer put the money up front and assume the risks while Wall Street benefits if the plan works?
Well, we put a lot of these questions to Christina Romer, President Obama's Chief Economic Adviser. Check it out here.
Another big issue today, the more than one hundred billion dollars set for infrastructure projects around the nation. We talked to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell who co-founded Building America's Future Coalition along with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
I asked Governor Rendell how soon we'll see jobs come out of it and if now is the time to be spending billions more tax dollars.
Finally, the story of a former banker who found a new job and passion as a NY cabbie. He is a real character and shows us that success comes in all forms.
As always check us out on twitter.com/amfix and twitter.com/kiranchetrycnn.
Cheers,
Kiran