Bailout Will Cost "Hundreds of Billions"

[HopeHoops]

Source: CNN

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The federal government, in what will be its most far-reaching attempt yet to contain the financial crisis
...
it is likely the government would take on hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgage assets.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/18/news/economy/rtc_speculation/index.htm?cnn=yes

---

$10b / month in Iraq x two years - we're in that range

[zanne]

1. Talk to me like I'm a six year-old.

What does this mean? I read the article, but remember, I'm six years old.

[w4rma]

2. A lot of wealthy people are going to get paid tax payer money for 'bad' buisiness decisions. (nt)

[Robbien]

3. Lehman chief Dick Fuld pocketed $466 million between 1993 and 2007.

You just paid for that.

[indepat]

19. If only the people could regain the countless billions in salaries and bonuses based on

bad/fraudulent assets/bogus earnings. If only we could invoke a bill of attainder upon the whole sorry lot. :P

Edited to delete hundreds of

[opihimoimoi]

4. The Fun Level will diminish....nice restruants, NFL, NBA, NASCAR

Bowling, PGA...everything...will be impacted....deeply....

it will be a quasi 3rd world feeling.

[zanne]

5. So, in my case, it will be life as usual. nt

[opihimoimoi]

18. I guess if you say so....but what of the OTHERS? The left behinds? What of them?

[TwilightGardener]

6. Smells like bullshit--these big investment firms don't deserve taxpayer money for their

shitty, greedy, risky practices. We here at the bottom have our OWN problems, thanks.

[ThoughtCriminal]

7. But they claim it con't cost taxpayers that much

... if the economy recovers and the housing market recovers...

and they say "We're still not in a recession - so stop saying that!"
(ah - the things you find at money.cnn)

And it's nothing like socialism - So stop saying that!

:sarcasm: <- is this necessary?

[liberal N proud]

8. Billions and Billions

Yet nothing for the people losing their homes because these bastards wasted away the money.

[joeglow3]

9. Can someone help me?

There seems to be a lot of threads on this and I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction to study this more.

I was watching CNBC yesterday and someone said that of all the times the government has done this in the past, they have never lost money. How can this be true? I know that they are assuming real assets so we will not see a complete write-down of all assets (i.e. it won't cost us the full half a trillion), but will the government actually be able to make money?

I also know the government is charging AIG the 3 Month T-Bill rate plus 850 basis points, so if the debt is paid, there is money that the government will make there. Additionally, the government jumps to number 1 in the list of creditors. But, that is a BIIIIIG "if."

Basically, is there anything discussing the real potential cost to the government, compared to when this was done in the past?

[anarch]

10. I'd say "hundreds of billions" is a pretty low estimate

and also doesn't take into account the "cost" of the government having no funds for any kind of programs that might help the needy...or, hell, anybody besides the wealthy for that matter. Talk about insult to injury...wow.



(edited to correct bizarre, unintentional Carl Sagan misquote in subject line.)

[FreeStateDemocrat]

11. Puke's couldn't privatize Social Security now they are going to bankrupt it's future and

take Medicare down with it.

[An Intellectual]

12. We can't afford universal healthcare?

[RedLetterRev]

13. Let's see if I have this right

Wall Street played fast and loose, working every short-sell scam they could work. Banks, without benefit of oversight (thanks to Repub repealing Glass-Steagall) engaged in every fast-and-loose, predatory, or scammy loan they could make, including puffing up appraisals to load-up unwary consumers with unncessary debt they couldn't repay. When all of this went sour, the crooks want us, the taxpayer to pay for all of the mess left behind, after they've pocketed the difference, plus they want repayment of the originally-crafted debt. That way, they effectively get paid twice for being crooks.

So we've got now, what? five million folks out of their homes due to foreclosure, plus how many still out of their homes from Katrina (and New Orleans is still largely a shambles because the fed can't find the money to rebuild or repair) and how many out of their homes in Galveston and Houston and the fed can't find the money or wherewithal even for frickin' ice?

Yet the cronies and the über-rich are being well-repaid for crookery. Yup. Makes perfect sense in *-world. The biggest transfer of wealth upward since the Great Depression. Right on time, as predicted and designed.

The only real mind-blower for me is that there is a single person left who would consider voting for a repub instead of depending one from the end of a rather short rope.

[Oldtimeralso]

14. Now the Government is Going to be Financial Underwriters.

I knew the government was out to F. U.:wtf:

[truthisfreedom]

15. They've decided that since they're not going to be running government anymore,

they're going to wreck it and steal everything they possibly can before they leave.

[doodadem]

16. What is wrong with the DEMS???!

When you read the article, it's all about the Democrats writing the legislation to bail these people out--their quotes, their photo. Pelosi saying we have to act quickly on this.

Not a word of condemnation on the players.

[Javaman]

17. this is the major x-mas present the corps have been waiting for...

and believe me, it won't be hundreds of billions, it will be well over a trillion.

[zippy890]

20. money experts on TV news say will be over a Trillion dollars

the details of this deal are not widely known yet, but expectations are the total dollar amount will exceed $1,000,000,000,000 - a Trillion dollars.

so where was the SEC the last several years? asleep at the wheel like all the other federal regulatory agencies.


when the the Dems take office there won't be anything left, not even crumbs in the kitchen pantry.

what a mess.

edited spelling

[Julius Civitatus]

21. Between the bailouts and the cost of Iraq war, Americans will be saddled with debt till

the Milky Way collides with the nearest galaxy.

This bailout only rewards the obscene behavior of greedy CEOs, who seem to get paid millions to run financial institutions to the ground.

Socialism: only for the very rich.

[Thor_MN]

22. Are they buy the mortgages themselves or the funky derivatives of derivatives of subprime loans?

If they are buying people's bets on the bets of people on packages of subprime loans going up or down in value, I'm really steamed. If they are buying the packages of subprime mortagages, well, I'm irked. This should be financed by a special tax on executives of finanace companies. They made this freaking mess, they should have to pay for it.

The mortgages are backed by the properties. The derivatives are backed by nothing but faith. The people that created the derivatives should be sitting in jail with their entire estate confiscated to help pay for the cleanup.

Funny how the "free marketers" are clamoring for government intervention now that the environment that they created has collapsed. Hypocrisy comes easily to conservative, but it sure as heck aint cheap.