Is the bailout working yet?

[JVS]

[grannie4peace]

1. i think its gonna a a long time !!!!

[Hannah Bell]

2. The delightful bailout goodness has not yet kicked in. So I've been told repeatedly

by the experts here.

I bow to their superior wisdom & acknowledge my inferior ignorance -

Which they also don't hesitate to tell me about.

Yes, & also the absolute certainty of Hank Paulson behaving like FDR.

[regnaD kciN]

4. That's right -- it hasn't started yet...

The original plan was to have "reverse auctions" (?) of the bad debt by early November. There was hope that the psychological effect of it passing would be enough to loosen the credit markets right away. Obviously, that didn't happen.

Current thought among economists is that, instead of buying "toxic assets," governments worldwide would be better advised to recapitalize banks by using that sort of money to buy preferred stock in major financial institutions. (This was originally proposed by Gordon Brown in the U.K., and is being implemented right now -- however, it needs to be replicated by the other G7/8 members to control the problem instead of just having it jump from one country to another.) Fortunately, modifications to the original bailout bill demanded by Senator Dodd allowed the $700b to be used for this purpose rather than just buying bad debt, and there are indications that this will be the course Paulson takes.

I'm hoping that the G7/8 can agree on this plan of action this weekend and put it into effect over the next week. If they take too long (and that includes waiting until November), the damage might already have been done.

[lligrd]

3. Yes, AIG Was Able To Host A Big Party nt