The Inheritance Tax

Have you noticed a new buzzword making its way through Washington these days – inheritance – as in “my administration inherited this financial crisis”, “I inherited this war in Iraq” or “he inherited a difficult situation, including these…retention contracts”. That last remark is attributable to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, referring to AIG CEO Edward Liddy, who accepted the position at the request of the federal government late last year.

The AIG situation is unfortunate and complicated, made even more so by legislative incompetence demonstrated by the likes of Dodd, Frank and Waters. Geithner appears to be in way over his head, and gives the perception (at least to me) that he lacks any sort of coordinated plan to relieve the financial system of this mess. And even if he does, the Gang of Three mentioned above will inevitably find a way to gum it up.