Financial Crisis Quotation of the Day

In the Washington Post today, former director of the Congressional Budget Office Douglas Holtz-Eakin pretty much says it all about the AIG dust-up and much else: 

The … lesson is that no matter how bad you think market capitalism is, the federal government has proved it is worse. Congress originally banned these very bonuses, then stripped the ban out of the stimulus bill and is now threatening confiscatory taxes on the lawful recipients. The Treasury knew about the bonuses and vouched for their legality but now wants double the money back somehow. How, exactly, the Treasury expects any straight-thinking financial entity to enter into a voluntary public-private "partnership" to solve the financial crisis given this track record is a mystery to me. 

Yes, indeed.