Word: congresses
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...hammer was supposed to be the famous $700 billion bailout bill that Congress signed last week, in which Paulson and Co. 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...
...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...
...Inside-the-beltway representatives had better straighten up. With this kind of leadership, who needs Congress? Joe Myers, Mesa, Arizona...
...firms that will be directly helped by the bailout is Goldman Sachs. Paulson, the man who is leading the bailout, is a former Goldman Sachs CEO, and mega-investor Warren Buffet, who called the bailout "the right thing" for Congress to do, had just bought a huge stake in Goldman Sachs. These are clear signs that the big money-men are likely to turn the bailout to their own profit. Banks and firms that bet on paper securities not backed by real assets should be left to die on their own swords. Sivaswamy Mohanakrishnan, Auckland...
There may also be political reasons for this unexpected turn. When the crisis intensified in mid-September, Washington acted quickly. There was a Treasury Secretary to devise and present a rescue plan, and a Congress - after an initial case of the vapors - to act on it. But there is no Hank Paulson in Europe, nor a precise counterpart to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Jean-Claude Trichet heads the European Central Bank, but it cannot play the lender of last resort, as the Fed did on Sept. 16 by loaning $85 billion to prop up the U.S. insurance giant...