期望管理

阿財長先生未來公布的處理壞資產方案能否令市場滿意呢？

大口仔覺得一半一半，原因係市場上太多貪得無厭的炒家想向美國政府抽水，要呢班有見好即收？同叫班賊睇到黃金唔搶一樣困難，但財長先生上次一出閘就脫腳的舉動(可能係刻意的)卻有效地為第二次公布方案細節的期望降溫。

期望管理呢家野有時都幾難掌握，或者花旗財長可以打個電話俾香港前財爺，現任特首當奴曾請教下。

Geithner Says He’ll Soon Offer Details on Toxic-Asset Cleanup

By Rebecca Christie and Lizzie O’Leary

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he will soon provide details of his plan to help banks clean up the non-performing assets that are clogging the financial system.

“We’re going to move quickly to lay out a new financing program to deal with these legacy assets,” Geithner said in an interview with Bloomberg television yesterday during a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers in Horsham, England. “We have and expect to see a lot of support for this program” among potential buyers of the assets, he said.

Geithner disappointed investors and was criticized by U.S. lawmakers including Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, chairman of the budget committee, for outlining plans to address toxic assets without an explanation of how they will work. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index slumped 4.9 percent on Feb. 10, the day Geithner announced the plan.

Geithner’s program has three main elements: Injecting fresh government capital into some of the country’s biggest financial institutions; establishing a public-private partnership to handle as much as $1 trillion of banks’ bad assets; and starting a credit facility with the Federal Reserve of as much as $1 trillion to promote lending to consumers and businesses.

The Treasury hopes to unfreeze credit markets by providing new incentives to banks and investors to resume trading in mortgage securities and other troubled assets. U.S. regulators are conducting a new series of examinations to make sure banks have enough capital to accept losses when selling these assets, while also planning to provide government financing to the investors who might buy them.

Gauging Interest

More information about the public-private investment plan will be made available in the next week, a Treasury official told reporters yesterday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Treasury will roll out enough information for investors to gauge their interest in the new program, along with an operational timeframe, the official said.

In the interview, Geithner said the Treasury already is well on its way to starting “a dramatic lending program to help securities markets get flowing again.” He said regulators will ensure banks have a “backstop of capital” to make sure they can “do what’s necessary” to restore lending.

The Treasury also is looking to a new program, launched in partnership with the Federal Reserve, to encourage banks to make new loans. The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility is intended to revive the market for securities backed by consumer loans, yet it may start with just a handful of deals, according to participants in the preparations.

TALF Delay

Last week, the Fed delayed by two days until March 19 the deadline for submissions of proposed packages of debt that investors can buy with Fed financing. Brokers and investors have had difficulty agreeing over contract terms for the TALF, the people said.

The Treasury isn’t worried if the TALF gets off to a slow start, the Treasury official told reporters. The program is meant to be a longer-term effort to spur new lending, so a slow initial take-up shouldn’t be surprising, he said.

Geithner met yesterday with Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren, days after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said he was “worried” about China’s investment in U.S. Treasury securities and wanted assurances that the holdings are safe. In Horsham, Geithner said the U.S. and the Chinese focused on their common goal of helping restore health to financial markets and the global economy.