Emperor Paulson: "Got Any Ideas?"

So the Troubled Asset Relief Program will now not provide relief for troubled assets. If we didn't pass it, the world was going to end, but a couple months out from passage, it's not going to be used for its purpose.

WASHINGTON -- Secretary Henry Paulson said the Treasury has put a plan to purchases of illiquid mortgage-related assets on hold.

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department, signaling a new phase in its $700 billion financial-rescue plan, is considering requiring that firms seeking future government money raise private capital in order to qualify for public assistance, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move isn't expected to apply to the existing $250 billion capital-purchase program, which is already injecting money into banks. But Treasury is considering attaching such conditions to any of its future capital investments, these people said.

"We are carefully evaluating programs which would further leverage the impact of a TARP investment by attracting private capital, potentially through matching investments," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in a broad speech on the Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP, the global credit crunch and the government's recent steps to address the financial meltdown. "In developing a potential matching program; broadening access in this way would bring both benefits and challenges."

I don't have much of a problem with requiring public capital for companies that want assistance - in a sense they have to prove their worthiness as a business, although the prospect of assistance is probably enough to entice the capital in the first place, which means a lower funding burden for the government, but not some major hurdle for the corporation.

But what should be very frightening to everyone is that Paulson can completely reverse the terms of the TARP program, without any check on his power or Congressional input whatsoever. His remarks today suggest that he's playing piñata with the greater economy, just whacking at it from every angle in an untargeted fashion. We're only a couple months out from the initial plan, and now we have one that's completely different. Meanwhile, the dithering is costing investors trillions and increasing uncertainty.

If I'm Barack Obama interviewing potential candidates for Treasury Secretary, my first question would be, "Can you start Monday?"