U.S. Is Pressed to Add Billions to Bailouts

[biopowertoday]

There a couple of nice graphs at the link related to the bailout tab.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/business/24bailout.html?_r=1&th&emc=th


February 24, 2009

U.S. Is Pressed to Add Billions to Bailouts

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS, ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

This article is by Edmund L. Andrews, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Mary Williams Walsh.

The government faced mounting pressure on Monday to put billions more in some of the nation’s biggest banks, two of the biggest automakers and the biggest insurance company, despite the billions it has already committed to rescuing them.

The government’s boldest rescue to date, its $150 billion commitment for the insurance giant American International Group, is foundering. A.I.G. indicated on Monday it was now negotiating for tens of billions of dollars in additional assistance as losses have mounted.


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All these companies’ mushrooming needs reflect just how hard it is to stanch the flow of losses as the economy deteriorates. Even though the government’s finances are being stretched — and still more aid might be needed in the future — it is being forced to fill the growing holes in the finances of these companies out of fear that the demise of an important company could set off a chain reaction.

The deepening global downturn is dragging down all kinds of businesses, and, with no bottom to the recession in sight, investors sent the the Dow industrials down 250.89 points, or 3.7 percent, to 7,114.78, a 3.7 percent drop for the day and a loss of about 50 percent from their peak in the fall of 2007. Asian markets followed suit on Tuesday by flirting with the lows they hit last October, with stocks in Hong Kong dropping more than 3 percent, and Japan's Nikkei 225 index dropping more than 2 percent before rebounding slightly. ...............

[Triana]

1. quit bailing them. n/t

[Sultana]

2. Um, how about hell NO!

enough is enough...