ATTENTION: THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOLS DAY JOKE

REUTERS--Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday "it is not fair it is deeply unfair" that some financial institutions that got taxpayer-paid bailouts are emerging in better shape from the recession than millions of ordinary Americans.

He acknowledged public outrage over that and said people watched with disdain as Washington protected high-risk banks and investment houses, even as the national unemployment rate was soaring to double-digit levels for the first time in a generation.

But in a nationally broadcast interview, Geithner also argued that President Barack Obama had no choice when facing a financial crisis but to support then-President George W. Bush's "unpopular" bailout plan.

Geithner said the other option was to "stand back" and do nothing, "and that would have been calamitous for the American economy."

WB7: Ah Timmy boy, what about attaching regulatory strings to the bailout plan so Wall Street banks could not go to bubble town yet again? Like they are doing this very moment.  What happened to that alternative?

ANSWER: All work and no play, makes Timmy a very dull boy...

Image by Obe Lincoln

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