If every novel or Hollywood movie starts with either the premise of “A Man Walks Into a Town” or “A Man Goes On a Journey,” Bailout by Neil Barofsky begins with the former.  Neil Barofsky plays the leading Jimmy Stewart hero role in this modern update to Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. In late 2008,

Ok, so it’s no secret I’m pretty sweet on SIGTARP, the Norse God of Financial Accountability. There’s the pleasure of calling a fellow US Treasury colleague a liar. There’s the feistiness of a government official pointing out that through our failure to rein in TBTF banks, we’ve laid the groundwork for the next crisis There’s

We love to criticize the wastefulness of bureaucracy, the agency ass-covering, and the naiveté of government officials.  But it’s a surprising pleasure to read[1] The SIGTARP [2]  review of the government’s response to Citigroup’s near-death experience and its bailout in the Fall of 2008. Here we have a US Treasury position created for the purpose

See related post In Praise of SIGTARP Part I here We are now at the four year mark on the deepest part of the Great Credit Crunch and Great Recession, so I’m moved to ask: When it comes to avoiding the next financial blowup and bailout we need to ask “Are our bank protections better