Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, as you all surely know, is not a fan of legislation that is rushed through the Congress and signed quickly by the President. It almost always is rife with problems and unintended consequences.

To wit: the big “bailout/rescue” package just passed by Congress and signed by President Bush. According to the Washington Post in their piece entitled “Treasury’s Rescue Plan Hits Technical Snag”:

Banking regulators are working today to resolve accounting roadblocks that would hold up the government’s plan to revive financial markets by investing $250 billion in the nation’s banks.

The problem is this: Under existing rules, banks cannot count the Treasury Department’s investment as part of their core capital, the foundation of money that supports a bank’s operations. The very goal of the plan was to buttress those foundations, which have been eroded by recent losses, undermining the stability of the banks.

The Treasury’s initial investment in nine of the largest banks cannot go forward until the accounting issues are resolved, people familiar with the matter said. Regulators are now working to figure out how to change existing rules to accommodate the program, the latest in a string of ad hoc measures to address the financial crisis.

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve issued a rule, effective today, that suspends its long-standing objections to counting such an investment toward core capital. But other regulators have yet to act.

Beautiful. Just friggin beautiful. You’d think that someone might have thought of this while they were actually debating the law.

Friggin beautiful…

Carry on.