Friday, September 19, 2008

Financial Bailout - A Day To Remember

The rescue or bailout by the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve is the biggest in history. The details are being hammered out with a joint session of congress, the Fed and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. representing the executive branch. So far:
  • The US Government will insure $2 TRILLION of money market funds. The Fed came in to assist by loaning money to troubled funds to help them not "break the buck."

  • Federal Reserve will take on about half a trillion ($500 BILLION) of bad debt

  • Government made it illegal to short financial stocks on a list.

  • President Bush, Congress (Senate and House of Reps) and the Federal Reserve are united in saying a tax payer sponsored bailout is better than a financial collapse.
Keep checking back as I update this blog with new information.

From Wikipedia:
Crowd at New York's American Union Bank during a bank run early in the Great Depression. The Bank opened in 1917 and went out of business on June 30, 1931.