The big news has been how the US Government has decided to bail out troubled banks with 700 Billion US tax dollars. 700,000,000,000 is such a big number that I just had to write it out.

Now the Treasury Department has announced plans to outsource the management of this $700 billion using special contracting authorities. Hmm, probably the same guys that ran Enron, right?

These “special contracting authorities” may end up being like the private security teams that worked in Iraq. Not subject to American law, because they were in Iraq. Not subject to the laws in Iraq (or they just hid so well that they never got caught). Not subject to the UCMJ (military law) because they are no longer int he military.

So the Treasury Department is going to hire its own mercenaries (oops, “private portfolio managers”) other financial services consultants without following standard procedures. I’m not sure why but this really sounds like a dirty business that is going to make some people very rich on the taxpayer dollar.