My Tweet-Summary of the "Bailout Bill"

[UPDATE 10:12PM PDT: Sunlight foundation has the bill marked up in html with public commenting.]

[UPDATE 7:52PM PDT: It looks like a final draft was published, and its somewhat different from the draft I was reviewing below. Most of the comments below stand, even though the page references, and many of the specific references phrases have changed. IN particular, it appears the final draft has more language about an "insurance" program that financial institutions can participate in, in lieu of selling bad mortgages. Most of the oversight and scope of authority language seems to be the same. One notable addition is language on p.90 which calls for the president to impose a way of recovering any losses (after 5 years) from the TARP program. ]

Minutes after the first discussion draft of the "Economic Recovery and Corporate Accountability Act of 2008" was published, I went through and reviewed all 104 pages of it. Here's a coalescing of the Tweets I produced while reading it.

• Here's the bailout bill: http://links.sfgate.com/ZEYS  
• The bill is 102 pages long. Its time to review it in detail. Potential to reshape American economy for a generation.
• I'm on page 7 of the 110 page bill. I'm definitely gonna read every line of this. Its times like this I'm glad I went to law school ;)
• @schnaars What's amazing is the massive power that the Treas. Secty is granted. The choice of prez has very *real* short term impact.  in reply to schnaars
• I think this grants more power to the executive than even the (awful) PATRIOT act. I'm not sure its avoidable, though.
• I really want to ensure is that the transactions the TARP envisions are transparent - there are reporting requirements in there (p17-18)
• hmm, at least 20% of profits from sales of assets are to go 65/35 into Housing Trust Fund, Capital Magnet Fund - what are these? #bailout
• So far (as of page 24), nothing about Secty of Treasury *forcing* mortgage lenders to modify loans to avoid foreclosures #bailout
• Any wiki for comments on the bailout bill? Someone want to htmlize and wikify it? #bailout #tarp
• BTW, the bill proposal is titled "Economic Recovery and Corporate Accountability Act of 2008" #bailout
• The main program in the bailout bill is the "Troubled Assets Relief Program" #bailout #tarp
• Not that it will change it, but could we put a thousand eyeballs to make any bugs shallow in the bailout bill?? #bailout
• Apparently the secty only has power to prevent foreclosures *as an investor* - no special power: .#bailout
• "The Secretary shall request (mortgage loan servicers) to avoid preventable foreclosures, to the greatest extent possible" - p. 24 #bailout
• p37: The Secty shall make available to the public, in electronic form, a description, amounts, and pricing of assets acquired #bailout
• p39: Congress can basically put the brakes on after $350B if they pass a joint resolution- and there's rules about fast tracking it #bailout
• Dammit, @donlemoncnn, when it comes to $700B, there's no such thing as "fine print"!!!
• p44 The GAO also shall audit the program (in addition to the oversight board). #bailout
• p. 54 Wow, the standard for judicial review is "arbitrary". Wow. Wow. Wow. That means almost no judicial review at all. #bailout
• p. 55 Wow, the Secty's authority terminates at the end of 2009, unless extended. Thats awfully short time window. Is that enough? #bailout
• p. 63: Statutory limit on public debt increased to $11.315 Trillion. Whoa. Currently (I think) $8.184 Trillion. Big jump. #bailout
• 65 Some changes in foreclosure rules which I don't understand out of context. #bailout
• p.69 Congressional oversight as well (3rd independent oversight function, afaict) #bailout
• p.74 Some enhancements to the power of regulatory agencies (FDIC in particular) #bailout
• @Ross Like many sunset provisions, it is dual-edged. Keeps it politicized, but also keeps it in check. Probably good idea bcuz of the rush.  in reply to Ross
• p.82 Some stuff about the fed making emergency loans and having to report to Congress about such activities #bailout
• p.86 Title 3 of the act is about budget planning around the TARP (title 2 was defining TARP itself). #bailout
• p.86 Title *2* is the budget-related provisions, Title *1* is the TARP program, and TItle *3* (p 91) is tax implications (of course!) #bailout
• The title 3 tax provisions are complicated. It looks like some stock sales are treated as ordinary, not capital income. Needs revu #bailout
• p.94 The tax provision which limits tax deduction for salaries over $400k, some language about golden parachutes, needs more revu #bailout
• @Radu43 I think its pretty radical, but I'm not sure there's practically a better way. The treasury secty *needs* a lot of discretion.  in reply to Radu43
• p. 102 has text which I *think* extends until 2010 provisions which may exclude from taxable income forgiven debt on a foreclosure #bailout

As I noted, I'm looking for a better place to post these notes, (ie a wiki) where the markup and feedback can more collaboratively edited. Looks like the good folks at Sunlight Foundation are  going to put it up at the Open House Project based on the final draft of the bill (which has been published).

Comments

[Gabriela Schneider]

Hi Gabe! I'm Gabriela Schneider, communications director for the Sunlight Foundation. Nice aggregation of bailout tweets! BTW, we took the text from the latest bailout bill (which was originally posted as a PDF) and posted it here so you can comment on it section by section. http://publicmarkup.org/bill/emergency-economic-stabilization-act-2008/
Keep up the good work!

[Steve A]

What if... the treasury secty goes with a a revision of the IRA rules, specifically those related to tax exemption and deferral, by allowing the general public to buy up some of the "bad assets" (and maybe with some renegotiation). By allowing those assets to be held under the IRA umbrella, just as stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments are held, wouldn't such an option be attractive to the individual investor? And could that not bring us all to a quicker, happier, and successful conclusion to the mess? Somebody take that and run with it.

[ClubPenguinCheats]

Most of the oversight and scope of authority language seems to be the same.

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