$500,000,000,000

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Is what it's going to cost you and me to bail out all the idiots in America.

Minimum.

This time alone.

I shouldn't read this stuff. It makes me 1/3 angry, 1/3 anguished and 1/3 just sickened.

---------------

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080920/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown

Radical bailout plan has a jawdropping price tag

By TOM RAUM and JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writers 1 hour, 29 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Struggling to stave off financial catastrophe, the Bush administration on Friday laid out a radical bailout plan with a jawdropping price tag — a takeover of a half-trillion dollars or more in worthless mortgages and other bad debt held by tottering institutions.

Relieved investors sent stocks soaring on Wall Street and around the globe. The Dow-Jones industrials average rose 368 points after surging 410 points the day before on rumors the federal action was afoot.

A grim-faced President Bush acknowledged risks to taxpayers in what would be the most sweeping government intervention to rescue failing financial institutions since the Great Depression. But he declared, "The risk of not acting would be far higher."

The administration is asking Congress for far-reaching new powers to take over troubled mortgages from banks and other companies, including purchasing sour mortgage-backed securities. Administration officials and congressional leaders are to work out details over the weekend.

Congressional officials said they expected a request for legal authority to buy up the bad loans, at a cost in excess of $500 billion to the government. Democrats were discussing whether to try to attach middle class assistance to the legislation, despite a request from Bush to avoid adding controversial items that could delay action. An expansion of jobless benefits was one possibility.

In other major steps, the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve moved to give money-market mutual funds the same kind of federal protection, at least temporarily, that now applies to savings and checking accounts and certificates of deposit at banks. Money-market accounts sold through retail banks are already FDIC insured.

The spreading global selling panic had started to threaten some money-market funds, usually thought of as rock-solid investments. Administration officials feared a run on these funds, held by millions of Americans.

"Every American should know that the federal government continues to enforce laws and regulations protecting your money," Bush said at the White House. The 75-year-old Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation now insures savings and checking accounts and certificates of deposit up to $100,000.

Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission acted to block short-selling in financial securities. That is a trading method that bets the value of stocks will go down. It has been blamed for accelerating the plunge in stock prices of banks and other financial institutions.

"This is a pivotal moment for America's economy," Bush said. "In our nation's history, there have been moments that require us to come together across party lines to address major challenges. This is such a moment."

Congressional leaders of both parties welcomed the administration's bold moves, after a series of ad hoc rescues.

The talk on the presidential campaign trail, barely six weeks before the election, was of bipartisanship, too.

Democrat Barack Obama said it was critical that leaders in both parties work in concert. "Truly, we are all in this together," he said.

GOP presidential nominee John McCain said leaders should put aside partisan differences and "any action should be designed to keep people in their homes and safeguard the life savings of all Americans."

The federal government already has pledged more than $600 billion in the past year to bail out, or help bail out, some of the biggest names in American finance. That includes the rescue of investment bank Bear Stearns in March, the takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earlier this month and the takeover of the world's largest insurance company, American International Group, just this week.

But the contagion continued to spread, bringing political consensus that drastic and comprehensive federal action was needed.

There are precedents for such a federal takeover.

In the late 1980s, the government created the Resolution Trust Corporation to tackle the savings and loan crisis. It acquired the defaulted mortgages, foreclosed real estate and other assets of nearly a thousand failed S&Ls, restoring order and stability to the system. Resolving that crisis took six years and $125 billion in taxpayer money — roughly equal to $200 billion in today's dollars.

And there was the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a Depression-era relief program formed in 1932 by President Hoover that tried to revive the market by giving loans to banks and other businesses.

On Friday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson gave few details about the structure of the new program. Asked about an overall price tag, he said, "hundreds of billions" of dollars.

Congressional leaders said they were ready to move quickly but still needed details of the administration plan. For instance, there was no indication of what the government would get in return from financial companies for the federal assistance.

Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke briefed lawmakers in both parties on the idea by conference call Friday.

In a session with House Democrats, they described a plan where the government would in essence set up reverse auctions, putting up money for a class of distressed assets — such as loans that are delinquent but not in default — and financial institutions would compete for how little they would accept for the investments, said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who participated in the call.

"You give them good cash; they give you the worst of the worst," Sherman said of the plan, which he complained that Bush and his economic advisers were trying to panic lawmakers into rubber-stamping.

Paulson rejected Democrats' calls to include tighter regulations, corporate reforms or limits on executive compensation as part of the measure, Sherman said. "He's doing his best to paint a picture of the sky falling, and then he says, because the sky's falling, you have to do it my way."

Paulson said the new troubled-asset relief program that he wants Congress to enact must be large enough to have the necessary impact while protecting taxpayers as much as possible.

"I am convinced that this bold approach will cost American families far less than the alternative — a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets unable to fund economic expansion," Paulson. "The financial security of all Americans ... depends on our ability to restore our financial institutions to a sound footing."

Bush said simply, "We must act now."

"America's economy is facing unprecedented challenges. We're responding with unprecedented measures," Bush declared, standing in the White House Rose Garden with Paulson, Bernanke and Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shortly after his remarks, Bush called congressional leaders with whom the administration will be working on the final plan. He spoke to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio.

The administration wants to see a package emerge from the weekend, to lend calm to Monday morning's market openings, said Keith Hennessey, the director of the president's economic council. The goal is to have something passed by Congress by the end of next week, when lawmakers recess for the elections.

Paulson said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will step up their purchases of mortgage-backed securities to help provide support to the crippled housing market. He also said the Treasury Department will expand a program, announced earlier this month, to buy mortgage-backed securities, which have been badly hurt by the housing and credit crises.

"As we all know, lax lending practices earlier this decade led to irresponsible lending and irresponsible borrowing. This simply put too many families into mortgages they could not afford," Paulson said.

Bush authorized Treasury to tap up to $50 billion from a Depression-era fund to insure the holdings of eligible money-market mutual funds. And the Federal Reserve announced it would expand its emergency lending program to help support the $3.4 trillion in total assets of the funds.

On Wednesday alone, investors had pulled more than $89 billion from money-market funds, according to iMoneyNet, publisher of the newsletter Money Fund Report.

The government's actions could help alleviate the uncertainty that has been sending the markets into tumult over the past week. Lending has come to a virtual standstill in the wake of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

European Central Bank, Swiss National Bank and Bank of England also offered up more cash Friday. The three banks put a combined $90 billion into money markets.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Martin Crutsinger, Andrew Taylor, Marcy Gordon, David Espo and Jim Abrams in Washington and Joe Bel Bruno in New York contributed to this report.

[Drdogface]

Jaw dropping is a mega huge understatement. We, the US taxpayer, are being told that we will bail out the world. All the countries in the world who hold our debt will have it guaranteed by 100 million US taxpayers. I cannot fathom what just happened.

Where is the Supreme Court right now? They need to act on this Constitutional screwing by the Oligarchs in the Executive Branch.

[cab83_750]

Well, at least it was not the one trillion they were voicing early this morning.

Did they not say that it costs us 1 trillion for the war in Iraq? And what are we getting in return?

[cl8ton]

I’m thinking bout cashing out and moving to Mexico...
A friend did it a couple years ago and never regretted it!

Jeff, I’m not going to read the text cause it will piss me off also

[the]

Trillion is the new billion.

[Evans, Marv]

Grrrrrrrrrr!

[HardDrive]

Wanna feel even better? Take a few moments to read through this multimedia presentation.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/159439

I can run a company into the ground for $161 million dollars! No really. Pick me.

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by cl8ton

I’m thinking bout cashing out and moving to Mexico...
A friend did it a couple years ago and never regretted it!

Jeff, I’m not going to read the text cause it will piss me off also

We have so many friends in Australia at this point its absurd. No, you won't make as much money. Yes, the taxes are higher. But at least you are not footing the bill every 20 years when the uber wealthy feel the need to suck the economy dry.

Good friends in Perth and Brisbane, and they both live in nicer homes than we do, on less income......

[Drdogface]

We'll just have to organize another Tea Party... and that could happen...

[jyl]

Fending off a repeat of the Great Depression is well worth $500BN, or $1TR.

And the govt will recover much of that upfront cost. The assets it will take on are not "worthless", as the reporter says. There is a decent argument that many of them have become undervalued in this financial near-panic that has seized the debt markets.

They are mostly mortgage-based securities, which have already been written down - as one example, MS is valuing its subprime-based MBS at 10-15 cents on the dollar and its Alt-A-based MBS at 35 cents on the dollar. Take a pool of 10,000 subprime mortgages, what percent do you expect to go into foreclosure and what percent of the mortgaged value do you expect the house to sell for? If you think the answer is 100% go into foreclosure (all 10,000!?) and 15% recovery on sale (a formerly $400K house resells for $60K!?), then the govt will be getting a fairly valued asset. If you think that 100% and 15% is too pessimistic, well, then it doesn't look that grim.

OK, I understand the MS marks may be an extreme case. But my point is, these are not worthless assets at all.

Recall in the 1990s the RTC was formed to liquidate $520BN and ultimately recovered $400BN for a net cost of $120BN, appx.

It is quite possible that RTC #2 will ultimately have a net cost of $200BN, if the upfront cost is $500BN.

But whether RTC #2 ultimately costs $200BN, $500BN, $1TR, $2TR - the cost of another Great Depression is higher.

Heck, the ultimate price tag for Iraq is going to be $2TR even if we leave in the next year. Which do you prefer - an adventure in the desert, or saving the country from a depression?

[Wickd89]

I believe in regulation because the world is full of thieves and idiots. Our capitalist society is great, but you have to control people from breaking laws.

We have police to stop people from running red lights, but in general believe that the free market "will sort itself out." Please.

Everything is politically motivated. Did Greenspan continue to reduce rates because he want to sustain one long running economy without seasonal corrections, or did he do it so validate a president or two.......

Regulate: energy, food, money supply... etc. Sick of paying so much for milk anyways..

[tabs]

JYL a Great Depression is an UNDERSTATEMENT! The Global economy would have collapsed. The US govt could very well have collapsed, and Anarchy reigned.

You see it was starting to develope into a run on the $$$$$. Exactly why did GOLD go up $100 in 2 DAYS? cAUSE THE MONEY WAS STARTIN TO BECOME WORTHLESS.

[tabs]

So Boyz docha get it, with the money being worthless everybodys world just got turned over. No body would have escaped its wrath.

So enough of the bailouts and what Bushy did or didn't do, or the Dems or the Fatcat. We are in a world of hurt. Just be thankfull the electricity is still on.

[turbo6bar]

Let's not forget the price tag for bailing out FNM/FRE. That number has been quoted as high as $1 trillion. Each trillion in additional debt increases household debt by $8500. I suppose we should give credit to the government for being consistent. When in doubt, choose inflation.

[Jeff964]

bailout cost is now $700,000,000,000.00

[turbo6bar]

Additionally, the national debt ceiling has been raised to $11.3 trillion. It was previously at $9.5 trillion before a July 2008 increase to $10.6 trillion. The increase to $11.3 trillion reflects the above mentioned $700billion bailout.

Folks, the increase to $11.3 trillion reflects an 88% increase since 1998. Inflate ourselves to great wealth.

[cab83_750]

Originally Posted by jyl

Fending off a repeat of the Great Depression is well worth $500BN, or $1TR. .....


.........Heck, the ultimate price tag for Iraq is going to be $2TR even if we leave in the next year. Which do you prefer - an adventure in the desert, or saving the country from a depression?

Thanks for repeating these!!!! Are we ever getting anything for Iraq? Better yet, for being the World's police?

[artplumber]

I'm thinking class action suit against the govt and any company and execs they are bailing out...

[Hugh R]

I posted on this in another thread earlier. $11.3 TRILLION in debt, $3.3 Trillion in budget (read incoming tax money) and they've "allocated" $250 Billion for this year to put towards paying off the debt.

Knock off five zeros on each and think of it like a household. You have $113,000 in Credit Card Debt, you bring in $33,000 in income and you're allocating $2,500/year to put towards the $113,000 in CC debt for this year. Are you actually going to make any headway? Hell, you're not even paying the interest on the debt, let alone the principal!

I believe, (hope) that I'm room temperature before this all goes to hell. I fear my kids and grand kids are going to get screwed. What if the USA declared bankruptcy in 10-20 years? What would happen?

[cab83_750]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

.... What if the USA declared bankruptcy in 10-20 years? What would happen?......

History repeats itself. The once mighty Egypt went down; Rome was mightly and went down; Spain was mightly and went down; and so on, and so on......

I do not think U.S.A. is exempt from history.