MW: Treasury's financial rescue program reportedly understaffed
By Michael Kitchen
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The Treasury is struggling to hire enough people to handle the $700 billion financial rescue package passed by Congress in October, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Recently, many decisions have been left up to interim staff members, often from other federal banking regulators, who are temporarily at Treasury but are expected to eventually return to their previous positions, the report said. Assistant Treasury Secretary Neel Kashkari, charged with running the Troubled Asset Relief Program, was cited as saying the department's Office of Financial Stability is operating at half-staff, with about 40 full-time employees. However, Kashkari also said he hopes to double the number of full-time staff by the time President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in on Jan. 20. Outside observers said the difficulty of quickly building a qualified staff may be one reason the Treasury abandoned its original plans to use the TARP to purchase assets from financial institutions, deciding instead to inject capital into the banking system, the report said.
