I don’t normally cut and paste an article from another source (actually, I am not sure I every have) but Bloomberg seemed to sum it up nicely for me this morning. From Bloomberg News…
U.S. Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailouts as Senate Votes
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.
The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged to provide up to $5.7 trillion more if needed. The total already tapped has decreased about 1 percent since November, mostly because foreign central banks are using fewer dollars in currency-exchange agreements called swaps. The Senate is to vote early this week on a stimulus package totaling at least $780 billion that President Barack Obama says is needed to avert a deeper recession. That measure would need to be reconciled with an $819 billion plan the House approved last month.
Only the stimulus package to be approved this week, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program passed four months ago and $168 billion in tax cuts and rebates approved in 2008 have been voted on by lawmakers. The remaining $8 trillion in commitments are lending programs and guarantees, almost all under the authority of the Fed and the FDIC. The recipients’ names have not been disclosed.
“We’ve seen money go out the back door of this government unlike any time in the history of our country,” Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, said on the Senate floor Feb. 3. “Nobody knows what went out of the Federal Reserve Board, to whom and for what purpose. How much from the FDIC? How much from TARP? When? Why?”
Read the rest of the Story Here (then come back and comment!)
Fine, I suppose this is where you look for some witty insights to my mind. A "bio" of sorts. Here is the deal... I ride motorcycles, smoke cigars, golf, kayak, fly, race my car through the mountains, write (a lot), and travel extensively. I am almost old enough not to care what other people think about me...almost. ~Godfadr
I’d love to comment, but I have NO idea what that article is saying. I admit, that outside of the obvious and simple things, the economics of all this totally baffles me. It appears that there are trillions of dollars of taxpayer? monies already guaranteed? Bloomberg filed a FOIA to find out who was getting those loans; and are suing as the feds aren’t saying?
Bottom line for me about this piece is: WHAT exactly is it saying and how badly will this affect us average hard-working folks?
In a nutshell? Our kids and their kids are going to have to do a lot of overtime to pay back the bailout money. Plan on big tax increases in our lifetime…
Ok, maybe I should have started the week with something more warm and fuzzy