Treasury's Bailout Overseer Quits

Treasury Department assistant secretary Herb Allison, who oversaw the bank bailout fund, stepped down this morning. He reportedly decided to step down because the program was nearing an official end. According to Reuters.com:

Allison had been in charge of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program that is scheduled to expire in two weeks.

"With the TARP program entering a new phase and continuing to wind down, I have decided that now it is the right time for me to step down," Allison said in an e-mail to staff members that the Treasury made available.

He said he was returning to Connecticut after two years' service in Washington to spend time with his wife, who had been unable to join him during that time. The chief counsel for the financial stability office, Tim Massad, will take over as acting secretary on September 30.

Though TARP is officially ending on October 3, after which it cannot make any new investments in financial institutions, its work in recouping the money that it did lend will continue for years.

Allison is one in a line of officials preparing to take their leave from Washington, many of them more senior, including Larry Summers, director of the White House's national Economic Council; Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer and White House budget chief Peter Orszag.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in a town-hall style event with Treasury staff, lavished praise on Allison and cast TARP as a highly effective mechanism despite the fact that it was "a four-letter word" for lawmakers and most Americans who saw it as a handout for bankers.

Continue reading at Reuters.com…

Rangel Departure Highlights Undone Tax Agenda

Charles Rangel – chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee – stepped down yesterday after eight months of ongoing investigations. While numerous other House of Representative members had urged his resignation due to ethics complaints, ironically including unpaid taxes, while others feel his resignation came at the wrong time.

There are dozens of items on the tax agenda, and many economists are worried that Rangel’s replacement (Sander Levin) may not be familiar with them. Earlier today, the Associated Press put together the following list of unfinished tax business that Rangel is leaving behind for Levin to handle:

• The top two marginal tax rates would increase, with the top rate going from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. The increase would affect individuals making more than $171,850 and couples making more than $209,250. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to limit the tax increases to individuals making more than $200,000 and couples with incomes more than $250,000.

• Tax rates also rise for just about every other income level. The lowest tax rate would rise from 10 percent to 15 percent. This year that 10 percent rate applies to taxable income under $8,375 for individuals and under $16,750 for couples.

• The child tax credit would be reduced from $1,000 to $500.

• The top tax rate of 15 percent on dividends would expire, leaving dividends to be taxed as regular income, with a top rate of 39.6 percent.

• The top capital gains tax rate of 15 percent would increase to 20 percent.

• The federal inheritance tax, which has been gradually phased out over the past several years, will return with a 55 percent tax on estates above $1 million.