"I could say I told you so," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who
helped lead a revolt against GOP leaders and sunk the $700 billion
plan on its first pass. "It was so open-ended and we put so little
accountability into it, they can basically do whatever they want
to with the money."
***
John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University in New York
and adviser to Wall Street regulators, said the government missed
an opportunity by taking equity stakes in banks without attaching
requirements that they use the bailout funds for new loans to spur
the economy.
"If we could do this all over again . . . you could have conditioned
the loan (plan) on how the proceeds could be used," he said. "Some
banks are still hoarding the money . . . and others simply are not
interested in lending in areas where they classically lent, like
construction lending, because they see a major recession coming.
. . .
"Before this is over that we're going to have casinos in Las Vegas
reconstituting themselves as bank holding companies" and applying
for government loans, Coffee warned.
