It's Going To Be Hard To Forget 2009

Sure, the Dow Jones average made a nice gain on the year.

Inflation stayed under control.

The rest of the economic news? Grim.

Banks believe they have a handle on things and don't seem eager to participate in the U.S. Treasury's trillion-dollar toxic asset program.

THE LAT SAYS:

Geithner’s foot-dragging contributed to Wall Street’s sense that the administration really had no plan, and was prepared to just default to the idea of nationalizing the biggest banks, in the same way that the Bush administration unexpectedly took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Even “Saturday Night Live” picked up on the markets’ exasperation. In a skit on March 7 — two days before stocks hit their bear-market lows — SNL’s Will Forte played a clueless Geithner hosting a call-in TV show to offer $420 billion to anyone coming up with a solution to the banking crisis.

The Treasury finally unveiled its Public-Private Investment Program on March 23, agreeing to partner with private investors to buy up to $1 trillion in toxic mortgage assets. Since then, however, the program has been sharply scaled back — in part because the financial system has stabilized, and many banks apparently think they can contain the damage from rotting assets. Where have we heard that before?