OT. "A desperate plan to buy distressed assets from banks tipped the U.S. into an era of privatized profits and socialized losses, but this mother of all bailouts managed for now, to halt the frightened flight of funds from the U.S." Kopin Tan, "The Trader," page M3, Barron's 9/22/08.
Bow's worthless comment: So the investment banks, banks and others created these derivative instruments (credit default swaps, mortgage securities et. al.), probably made tens of billions and now the U.S. taxpayer is going to support these derivative instruments to the tune of $700B (probably over $1T after the dust settles).
from S.F. Chronicle, 9/21/08, page A12:
"He said the government is HOPING that if it buys bad loans from banks, they will use the money to make more home, business and consumer loans."
"The Treasury proposal does NOT require institutions that take government money to use it to make loans. They could use it to make acquisitions, bolster their capital, raise executive salaries or other things."
I suggest anyone who wants to understand the implications of this incredible moment in U.S. financial history read:
"The Creature from Jekyll Island- A Second Look at the Federal Reserve" by G. Edward Griffin, American Media, P.O. Box 4646 Westlake Village, CA 91359, 800-595-6596.
Then you would know the answer as to why the U.S. Government does not print it's own money, instead of selling bonds, which the U.S. taxpayer has to pay interest on (to the banks!), and allowing the Federal Reserve to print "dollars."
Currently the largest single Federal Government expense is the interest on the debt (paid to banks and other governments). Which in the end is why this action was taken last week by the U.S. Treasury et. al.
