Federal Reserve
Bill Maher | A Travel Guide For Disheartened Americans | 10/10/08
Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Citi, Credit Default Swaps, Credit markets, Dana Bould, David Walker, Deregulation, Dow Jones, Election 2008, Federal Reserve, G.W. Bush, Hedge Funds, Henry Paulson, John McCain, Keating 5, Lehman, LIBOR, Maxine Waters, Mortgage Crisis, Oliver Stone, Politics, Realtime, Short Selling, Steven Moore, Treasury, Tullycast, Video, Wachovia, Wall Street bailoutBarack Obama Wants to Steal Your Grandmother | Bill Maher 10/10/08
Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Citi, Credit Default Swaps, Credit markets, Dana Bould, David Walker, Deregulation, Dow Jones, Election 2008, Federal Reserve, G.W. Bush, Hedge Funds, Henry Paulson, John McCain, Keating 5, Lehman, LIBOR, Maxine Waters, Mortgage Crisis, Oliver Stone, Politics, Realtime, Short Selling, Steven Moore, Treasury, Tullycast, Video, Wachovia, Wall Street bailoutOliver Stone w/ Bill Maher "Bush Would Have Died in Vietnam"
Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Citi, Credit Default Swaps, Credit markets, Dana Bould, David Walker, Deregulation, Dow Jones, Election 2008, Federal Reserve, G.W. Bush, Hedge Funds, Henry Paulson, John McCain, Keating 5, Lehman, LIBOR, Maxine Waters, Mortgage Crisis, Oliver Stone, Politics, Realtime, Short Selling, Steven Moore, Treasury, Tullycast, Video, Wachovia, Wall Street bailout700 Billion? "We Just Wanted to Choose a Really Large Number"
Stories“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
Bad News For The Bailout
FORBES DOT COM 09.23.08, 6:39 PM ET
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill seem determined to work together to pass a bill that will get the credit markets churning again. But will they do it this week, as some had hoped just a few days ago? Don’t count on it.
“Do I expect to pass something this week?” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., mused to reporters Tuesday. “I expect to pass something as soon as we can. I think it’s important that we get it done right, not get it done fast.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, says his office has gotten “close to zero” calls in support of the $700 billion plan proposed by the administration. He doubts it’ll happen immediately either. “I don’t think it has to be a week” he says. “If we do it right, then we need to take as long as it needs.”
The more Congress examines the Bush administration’s bailout plan, the hazier its outcome gets. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle complained of being rushed to pass legislation or else risk financial meltdown.
“The secretary and the administration need to know that what they have sent to us is not acceptable,” says Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The committee’s top Republican, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, says he’s concerned about its cost and whether it will even work.
In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
Wow. If it wants to see a bailout bill passed soon, the administration’s going to have to come up with some hard answers to hard questions. Public support for it already seems to be waning. According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Tuesday, 44% of those surveyed oppose the administration’s plan, up from 37% Monday.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who testified before the Senate committee Tuesday, will get a chance to fine tune their answers Wednesday afternoon, when they appear before the House Financial Services Committee.
A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says she is optimistic that the House will pass a bill this week. But that doesn’t mean the Senate, which is by nature more sluggish than its larger counterpart on the other side of Capitol Hill, will be so quick to act.
“They will act first,” says Sen. Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “Many of our members today were just beginning to have interaction with Secretary Paulson.”
Dodd proposed his own counter-proposal to Paulson’s plan earlier this week. Among other things, it calls for limits on executive compensation at troubled firms and for the Treasury to take a contingent equity stake in those firms. On Tuesday, Paulson rebuffed both ideas, as it might discourage firms from participating in the bailout program.
Those things aside, lawmakers have plenty of other concerns with Treasury’s proposal. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested the bailout be doled out perhaps $150 billion at a time, instead of $700 billion all at once. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., says it has an initial cost of $2,300 for every man, woman and child in the country. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., calls it a “financial socialism and it’s un-American.”
Dodd says that in speaking with his Senate colleagues, all are agreed on three issues: that a bailout bill include some oversight accountability for the Treasury, protection for taxpayers and that it address the continuing foreclosure problem.
He also points to one other concern: Paulson, the bill’s chief architect, is scheduled to leave office in just four months.
“I’m not about to give a $700 billion appropriation to a secretary I don’t know yet,” says Dodd.
–Senior writer Liz Moyer contributed to this article.
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
::
The World Banks Get Together and Pump $180 Billion Into Financial System
StoriesCentral banks pump up the dollars
As banks hoard cash and lending dries up, Fed plus 5 to pump $180 billion into system.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Federal Reserve and five other central banks around the globe announced joint efforts early Thursday to try to pump an additional $180 billion into the battered global financial system.
The Fed joined with the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of Japan, Bank of England and Bank of Canada in the coordinated effort.
“These measures, together with other actions taken in the last few days by individual central banks, are designed to improve the liquidity conditions in global financial markets,” said the Fed’s statement. “The central banks continue to work together closely and will take appropriate steps to address the ongoing pressures.”
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the Fed rescue of insurance giant American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500) this week has led to a tightening of credit in global markets.
Major banks have become even more reluctant to lend to each other on an overnight basis because of worries about unknown financial problems with other institutions and a desire to hoard cash to protect themselves.
Even money market managers are reluctant to loan money to banks, preferring to buy short-term Treasurys instead. That demand has driven up the price of Treasurys and driven down the yield, or interest rate, that those government instruments pay.
The yield on the 3-month Treasury bill fell briefly into negative territory for the first time since 1940 and closed Wednesday at 0.04%.
“Liquidity has never been in shorter supply in the credit markets during this painful episode,” said Kevin Giddis, managing director and head of fixed income for investment bank Morgan Keegan.
Bond prices slipped narrowly, lifting yields only slightly. The three-month had a yield of 0.105% in early trading. Giddis said the markets are looking for a more permanent solution than the one announced by the central banks Thursday.
“Based on nearly every metric that’s used in our business, a clear message has emerged over the last couple of days’ of trading activity: those with capital are reluctant to lend until the near term visibility becomes a little more certain,” he added.
The New York Federal Reserve Bank Thursday also pumped $55 billion into the nation’s financial system. That comes on top of $70 billion that it pumped into the system Tuesday.
The announcement of coordinated action Thursday helps provide dollars to foreign banks that needed the U.S. currency to transact business, but had been unable to access the Fed directly the way U.S. banks can. While the Bank of England and European Central had pumped money into their own financial systems earlier this week, that had been in the own currency, not dollars.
The ECB will get a $55 billion increase in the dollars it can loan out, doubling what it had already received under an earlier swap program, while the Swiss National Bank will receive an additional $15 billion on top of an earlier $12 billion program.
The Bank of Japan, Bank of England and Bank of Canada set up new swap programs with the Fed, with Japan getting $60 billion, England getting $50 billion and Canada getting $10 billion.
The swap program provides essentially no risk for the Fed since the U.S. central bank is receiving the same amount of cash back from its foreign counterparts. 
The New York Herald Sun 