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 General And Somewhat Nonspecific - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 3/30/09 — Monday, March 30, 2009 —  Q Thank you. I'd just like to follow up on some of the -- that has been out there here. You've been asked a couple times whether the actions regarding these auto companies should be viewed as something that the banks should pay attention to because a similar approach may come their way. And you said, no, we should look at these as individual cases. So are you essentially --MR. GIBBS: I guess what I'm trying to do is, I'm just trying to -- again, the example I just used with Chuck, I mean, the pathway for two auto companies is, based on the President's decision today, different. So I think to take any series of other entities and put them on that same scale, those paths may also be different. That's all I'm -- Q There's certain principles that underlie all of these decisions, though, obviously, and there is a certain willingness or unwillingness of the administration to dictate certain terms as a condition of receiving federal money. And so are you saying, by saying these are individual cases, are you trying to communicate that these banks really -- don't worry about this, this isn't coming your way? MR. GIBBS: No, I -- Q I think it's a fair question. MR. GIBBS: It is. It's a little general -- general and somewhat nonspecific. And again, what I'm -- I guess what I'm asking is, instead of looking at every entity as the same entity, I think that's -- I don't think that's hypothetically productive. Q Well, do you want me to ask the question that way by inserting all the names of all the banks that have received aid and ask if it would apply to that? I mean, would that be more helpful? MR. GIBBS: Well, again, understanding that some of the circumstances are different. Q But why Rick Wagoner and not Ken Lewis? MR. GIBBS: Again, some of these things are -- I don't have anything specific on Bank of America. But again, I just don't want to be generalistic across the board. Q So, in other words, you really don't want people reading anything more into this? MR. GIBBS: I hope people read into it exactly what I said rather than reading into it what they want to read into it. Q It's our job to help people -- to explain to people what it is that you're saying, and so I'm trying to make sure I understand it. MR. GIBBS: Okay. (Laughter.) Q It sounds like what you're saying is, no, you don't want us to interpret this as a sign of things to come for others -- MR. GIBBS: My hesitancy -- Q -- and if that's the case, why don't you just say -- MR. GIBBS: My hesitancy -- no, no, my hesitancy is just to look at every entity the same way, because, again, the circumstances by which any entity is at any certain point may well be different, even though it's the same type of entity, right? Again, I want to go back to GM and Chrysler. On the face, both are auto companies, right? Both have found themselves at a point where they're seeking additional government assistance, adding in to the additional loans that they got to put them on a path toward viability. But again, the examples by which we're using -- or that the President has made a determination about which direction they're going to go is different even though they're both auto industry. Q Of course, and I'm not suggesting the exact same remedy would apply to any one of these things, but, again, if you look at the general case, you have, say, generically, contracts that at AIG were unbreakable because they're legal contracts but for the UAW, those are contracts that you fully expect them to modify if they're going to get federal assistance. MR. GIBBS: Well, I think this -- I think many people have made -- I think many people have made sacrifices, but, again, without looking through the individual instances of other entities, it's hard to make that generalization. Automobile Industry | Banking | Economy | President Obama | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | Treasury Department | White House Press Corps Labels: Automobile Industry, Banking, Economy, President Obama, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, Treasury Department, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 9:32:00 PM  More This Than That - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 3/23/09 — Tuesday, March 24, 2009 —  Q Robert, in rolling out the details today, Timothy Geithner used a more, sort of, quiet approach -- pen-and-pad with reporters, not getting out there on television in a very public way. Why?MR. GIBBS: You guys always -- every time we do one of these things, we do a background briefing, and somebody asks if it can be on the record -- Q But this was a major -- MR. GIBBS: -- and, you know, we don't want just a speech, we'd like to do some Q&A, and so we put the Secretary of Treasury out on the record to -- Q This was a major event. Everyone was waiting for the details, and it almost seemed like it came out in a less than, sort of, bombastic way. MR. GIBBS: I guess he's worried a little bit less about what the packaging is on the present, and more importantly, what’s inside of the box. I suppose we could have rigged out some flags and printed up some placards and cued up some old campaign music, but I think what's important -- maybe not for Washington reporters, but what’s more important for the American people is to get the details of a plan that works to get their bank lending money again. I think that's, in all honesty, what the Americans people care most about. I think if you objectively look at what this administration has done, or what the economic team has done in the course of about nine weeks of service, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find nine weeks where more solutions were outlined of problems and challenges that have been facing this country probably since the 1930s. Q Just to follow another question –- Christina Romer, in an interview with CNN earlier today, talked about how if this doesn’t work that we’ll review it – we’ll tweak it, I think was the exact language that she used. Is there a backup plan if this doesn’t work? And to say "tweak" it, does that sort of instill sort of a lack of confidence that this will actually work? MR. GIBBS: Do we have a backup plan if it doesn’t work, and if we do have a backup plan, does that denote that we're preparing for it not to work? I want to sift through the circular -- Q I asked a backup plan because she said if it doesn’t work we'll "tweak" it. But I'm just wondering, does that give a sense of -- MR. GIBBS: Again, I think it is safe to assume that any policy that this administration or -- I'll speak broadly for any politician in the country -- if they roll out a plan, it's constantly evaluated to ensure that the objectives by which the plan was introduced are met by the implementation of the plan. And if the plan doesn’t meet through its implementation the objectives of what it was outlined to do, that that plan might be augmented to meet those objectives. Q That was deep. That was deep. MR. GIBBS: That was more this than that. (Laughter.) Banking | Economy | Obama Administration | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | TARP | Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner | White House Press Corps Labels: Banking, Economy, Obama Administration, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, TARP, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 2:54:00 PM Framing This Thing - Press Briefing by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner 3/23/09 — Monday, March 23, 2009 —  Q Looking at the example you give in the fact sheet -- the first program -- you start with talking about $100 in bank loans, but the private investor only has to kick in $6 for -- seems to be on the hook for $6 at the end of the day, and the FDIC guarantees between there and whatever was paid for the bad loan.Do you think a person outside this room, outside the Beltway, looking at that would feel like that's a -- you know, you've gotten a good deal by getting someone to kick in $6 for a loan that is valued at a $100, that's being purchased for $84. SECRETARY GEITHNER: I'm very confident you and your colleagues will do a good job of framing this thing -- (laughter) -- but let me just come back to the basic point. Okay? The point is, relative to what? What our job is, is to try to fix this problem in our financial system at least cost to the taxpayer and ways to get the incentives right so we can have private capital come in and not have the government do all of it. And the alternative strategies would have the government either taking on all that risk ourselves, having all those losses on our balance sheet -- or, sitting back and letting this process of deleveraging continue to weigh on the American economy, pushing viable businesses closer to the edge, where they have to shrink their businesses to get through this. And that's not an alternative we're prepared to support. The key thing is, again, that you -- people have to compete for the right to get access to financing in this context and they have to put money at risk for it to work. Yes. Q Can you clarify under both plans who is actually holding the assets at the end of the day, and explain to taxpayers what the upside is to all of that? How are they going to share in the upside of this program? SECRETARY GEITHNER: These funds -- purchase assets -- they're managed by professionals who know how to do this for a living. If there is a return to these over time, which we expect there will be, taxpayers will share in that return. So taxpayers are getting to take the benefits of providing this financing to the market. Now, of course investors will share, too, in that return, as you would expect. That's the simplest way to describe it I think. Banking | Economy | Press Briefing | TARP | Treasury Department | Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Labels: Banking, Economy, Press Briefing, TARP, Treasury Department, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 4:08:00 PM
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