Word: banking
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...were given wide berth to do what they needed to ease the financial panic that all but froze credit markets. Much of the discussion, and the planning, has revolved around how the government would buy up the toxic securities such as CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) that are now poisoning bank balance sheets. The thinking has been that once financial institutions can unload this trash on the government, the gears of commerce will move again. But that takes time to pull off. "It's an inefficient way to inject capital," says Campbell Harvey, professor of international business at Duke's Fuqua...
...Treasury is planning to pursue both direct infusions of capital and the purchase of bad assets to help clear the market. But outside observers already have qualms about a voluntary program. The consensus among experts seems to be that Treasury should shoot the wounded and let the surviving banks buy their assets. "There is no use in injecting equity into institutions that are basically insolvent," says Harvey. There's also what's known as the "lemons" issue: any bank that applies for funds might spook investors. The solution is to make all healthy banks participate...
...days since Congress passed a $700 billion bailout bill to get toxic assets off banks' balance sheets and inject companies with new capital, governmental intervention in the credit crisis has continued and even grown as other countries step up their own efforts to guarantee bank accounts and bolster financial firms. In a coordinated swoop, governments around the world cut interest rates; two days ago, in the U.S., the Fed took the unprecedented step of saying it would start buying commercial paper, short-term corporate IOUs, in yet another attempt to thaw frozen credit markets...
...scale of the envisaged capital injections indicated how large the government anticipates the holes in banks' balance sheets may actually be. The market is also mulling the impact of the government's stipulation that banks participating in the scheme must restrict executive pay and dividends to other shareholders. The voluntary nature of the scheme is also problematic, says a City fund manager based at an Asian-owned bank. "It would have removed more uncertainty if the government had just applied the plan to the banks across the board," she says. "Now we have to worry about which banks might need...
...ranks evaporated after a bold Cabinet reshuffle, and rebels shrank back from a coup attempt at such a tense time. "Who would have dreamed that a financial crisis would have given Labour a lifeline?" former Home Secretary David Blunkett wondered aloud at a drinks reception on London's South Bank, as across the river Treasury officials sweated over the final details of the bank rescue. "Labour is still on the ropes. It just looks different," he concluded. With confidence levels running so low even among Labour grandees, it's not going to be easy to restore confidence in the dealing...