Breakfast Discussion with the $700 Billion Man - And - The Treasury's Next 24 Plus Hours

Why You Care attended a morning discussion with Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Neel Kashkari - the man in charge of Treasury's $700 billion troubled asset purchase program (known as TARP - the Troubled Assets Relief Program) - and can report that the Treasury will make key announcements in the coming days, including one in the next 24 hours.

During the discussion sponsored by the Institute of International Bankers, Mr. Kashkari announced:

The Treasury will reveal in the next 24 hours a “Master Custodian Firm” which will shepherd the assets purchased and held by the Treasury, including those through auctions.

In the next few days the Treasury will announce a “Securities Asset Manager” which will oversee and sell the mortgage backed securities bought by the Treasury.

The Treasury also expects to unveil the “Whole Loan Asset Manager” in the next few days, which will both manage and sell the loans purchased by the Treasury.

Here's why you care: Once these are in place, the Treasury will be much closer to actually doing the things each manager/custodian is meant to do, and thus the financial institutions who chose to play will be that much closer to moving assets off their books. You will see in news stories that this will "increase liquidity" - which is to say the banks will have more cash. Banks with more cash, are more likely to lend to each other, and to you.

Want to read all of Mr. Kashkari’s speech? Click here.

Why You Care also appreciates the Institute of International Bankers for accommodating the number of press present - which seemed to rival the number of bankers.