Bailout Watch: Uncle Sam's Buying Binge May Not Be Over

October 15, 2008 RSS Feed Print
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Mortgage debt securities. Commercial paper. Shares in banks. What else can the feds buy? Well, pretty much anything, really. Not only does the Paulson plan have a broad mandate, but economist Lyle Gramley, a former Federal Reserve governor, notes that the Fed has within its powers the authority to do just about whatever ever it takes to keep the financial system up and running. Let's say a credit freeze is preventing a small business from getting a loan that it would have gotten under normal conditions. The Fed could go to that small-town bank and tell it to go ahead and make the loan and then the Fed would buy it from the bank. Now if only Bernanke would buy my student loan...

Tags:
government intervention,
Federal Reserve,
Treasury Department

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THE GREAT BAILOUT

Obama is--we know--a reader,

And also--it may be--a leader;

But it is very hard to lead

A nation so consumed with greed.

It turns the Christ upon his head:

Meekness and poverty stay dead

Within an economic system

Bailing out theft, but never wisdom.

The "least of these" my brother is,

But no one wants to hear of this,

"Spreading the wealth" the Christian way

Becomes a sin; the poor the prey.

It was the age--O don´t you doubt--

To be known as the Great Bail-Out,

As Wealth bailed from the common good

But left the poor to drink the flood.

.

I.M. Small of MT 11:01AM November 15, 2008

Aparently thats exacly what they have been teaching in Economics courses. "Greed is good, dam the consequences!"

of TX 12:51AM October 16, 2008

I NEVER HAD AN ECONOMICS COURSE IN COLLEGE. BUT IF I HAD, I WONDER IF THE PROFESSER WOULD HAVE WRITTEN

GREED ON THE CHALK BOARD AND THEN WALKED OUT.

THAT WAS THE ENTIRE COURSE

STEVE BRODY of NJ 11:35AM October 15, 2008

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