'Another one of those weekends,' Part II
It's also another one of those weekends with great articles on the financial crisis. This weekend's batch includes a piece on Citigroup's incompetent internal management (with a truly clueless CEO who was guided, if that's the right word, by one Robert Rubin). But the best of the bunch is about the Office of Thrift Supervision and how banks like Countrywide literally shopped around for the most lax regulators. OTS, whose budget is funded by firms it allegedly oversees, literally made sales pitches to land 'customers' like Countrywide. Favorite line from the OTS article:

In the summer of 2003, leaders of the four federal agencies that oversee the banking industry gathered to highlight the Bush administration's commitment to reducing regulation. They posed for photographers behind a stack of papers wrapped in red tape. The others held garden shears. Gilleran, who succeeded Seidman as OTS director in late 2001, hefted a chain saw.

Red tape. Garden shears. Chain saw. Clever guys, those Bushies, right? ... I didn't see any accompanying photo. But it could become a classic symbol of an era. ... David Ignatius thinks the financial crisis has gotten so dire that burying money and holding treasure hunts isn't such a bad idea. ... P.S. -- No word yet on how much more money taxpayers will fork over to Citigroup. I'm making a back-of-the-envelope estimate of about $30 billion in the near term. That's probably low, but I'm betting the Saudis will get more involved.

Update - 11-24-09 -- It's $20 billion. ... Note the $306 billion in other government guarantees. Incredible. ... Any chance of recouping past bonuses paid to now-fired Citigroup executives? Probably no chance. But it's infuriating to know that only a year ago these clowns were assuring everyone nothing was wrong and awarding themselves millions in bonuses. ...  ¶ 8:46 AM