Be afraid, be very afraid, government hints
Darrell Delamaide -- MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- After what happened to Rick Wagoner, bank chief executives had better think long and hard about how much they want to cooperate with the administration's plan for them to sell toxic assets to public-private investment funds.
The move by President Barack Obama to oust the chief executive of General Motors as a condition for continued government support sets a new enforcement standard for aid.
There's been talk the government's being tougher on carmakers than on bankers, but maybe the ax just hasn't fallen on the bank CEO -- yet.
At last Friday's meeting at the White House, a baker's dozen of bank CEOs may have had the impression they were still equal partners with the president and his advisers. They might have been tempted to think that Obama's repeated declarations about them all being in this together was typically anodyne political speak, signifying nothing.
But it turns out these are code words for "Be afraid, be very afraid."
