1st steps on U.S. rescue plans outlined

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: CNNMoney

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A top Treasury official on Monday outlined the government's multi-prong effort to bail out the United States financial system and resuscitate the economy, though he offered few details on how the plan will be carried out.

Using authority granted in the $700 billion rescue plan passed by Congress 10 days ago, the Treasury Department is moving on five fronts. They are:

Purchasing troubled mortgage-backed securities;
buying mortgages, particularly from regional banks;
insuring mortgage-backed securities and mortgages, ensuring banks and investors don't lose money if borrowers default;
purchasing equity in a broad array of financial institutions; and
helping delinquent borrowers stay in their homes

"Treasury is implementing its new authorities with one simple goal - to restore capital flows to the consumers and businesses that form the core of our economy," said Neel Kashkari, interim assistant secretary for financial stability, speaking in Washington, D.C., before the Institute of International Bankers.

The government has said it would release more details soon. Treasury and Federal Reserve officials are meeting Monday with top finance industry executives to finalize details, a Treasury spokeswoman said....

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/13/news/economy/kashkari/index.htm?postversion=2008101308#

[Hugin]

1. Oh, goodie! Banks don't lose money!

We're saved!

:bounce:

Never mind the taxpayer is picking up the tab to insure Banks don't lose money. :eyes:

F-ked up plan.

[htuttle]

2. Step one: Steal Underwear.

Step two: ??? (tba)

Step three: Profit!

[Deny and Shred]

3. Obviously 5 firms have been pre-selected to 'succeed'

The meeting will include Wall Street's top chief executives: Ken Lewis of Bank of America; Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase; Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs Group; John Mack of Morgan Stanley; and Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, according to The Wall Street Journal...

...Their job is to call the winners and losers in this type of environment,..."
Though they say the capital injection plan will be wide-ranging, Treasury officials acknowledge it won't be available to everyone.
"One thing we must recognize ... some financial institutions will fail," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday. "The doesn't exist to save every financial institution for its own sake."


This picking and choosing is beneath contempt. Sounds more like the secret-hand-shake club that gets to raid the public coffers, and shape the future landscape like Cheney's Energy meetings in 2001. I guess Lehman wasn't part of the club. They got no bailout, and no government-brokered buyout, just bankruptcy.
I expect zero transparency because these 5 firms will get the bulk of the money, and they won't just announce that. It has to look like a broad-based program, but they basically are saying it isn't.

[Dover]

4. I believe that leaves out one big player...Buffet and his interests.

The primary policy shapers are members of the Roundtable
http://www.fsround.org/
http://www.fsround.org/about/membership.htm

If people think it was bad enough having these behemoths become a one-stop-shopping for
all kinds of businesses, just wait until they're done devouring even more companies, picking and choosing their prey. Then we will have the equivalent of a global big brother system and no
national government to speak of. In fact our government is already theirs.