If The Bailout Passes... Then What?

Fortune:

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- After much ado, the government appears ready to toss a lifeline to Wall Street. But with policymakers frantically battling to keep the economy out of a deep slump, it won't be the only one needed.

The House of Representatives is expected to approve a $700 billion rescue package Friday. The so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program would allow Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to buy bad mortgage assets, in hopes of getting bank loans flowing through the economy again.

But using TARP to slim the bloated balance sheets of U.S. financial institutions may not be enough to restore the investor confidence that began ebbing last year - confidence that's necessary if banks are going to be able to raise the capital they need to stand behind their loans, and engage in the borrowing they need to keep their operations running on a daily basis.

Read the whole story: Fortune

Comments

[wanked]

Yea...till the next bailout, which reaches YOUR neighborhood soon!

[Erdgeist]

Does this mean the end of the TV show called "Flip This House"? Hopefully, with an infusion of more cash and cheap loans, home owners can, again, start to flip houses.

Psssst...don't blame it all on Wall Street. Some on Main Street got greedy, too.

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

The $850 billion bailout of Paulon's friends is a done deal. That money will be used to buy worthlees paper from the same people & companies that deliberately scammed home buyers and investors alike. It keeps them out of prison because now the foreign investors will be made whole. The money does nothing to help legitimate businesses get low cost loans.


The next step is to spend $700 billion in a way that allows legitimate businesses to have access to low cost loans. BUT THERE IS NO MONEY LEFT SINCE IT HAS ALL BEEN GIVEN TO THE WALL STREET CROOKS

[Wiredwilly]

What happens next is Americans are thrown into abject poverty , the Central Banks continue to create a Global Banking monopoly, the National Debt to the privately held Federal Reserve Bank increases, the currency devalues. Banking stocks soar & everything else is destroyed, McCain & Palin are elected, the United States marches into Iran, Russia moves into Georgia, World War lll is started, the Constitution is rendered useless, martial law is declared, the Nation dissolves, Bankers create the North American Union . a digital currency, implant citizens with a nano microchip that records & controls every aspect of your life and ordinary people die horribly from War, famine, & disease as Bankers grow rich & watch it all from isolated chalets in Switzerland until there is Global revolution which leads to Nuclear War and the destruction of Humanity. God never comes down from the clouds. The silent Earth spins in space.

[LouisvilleLiberal]

Warren Buffet called the "crisis" an "Economic Pearl Harbor".

Pearl Harbor was attacked by Asians. America was drawn in to war.

I believe he is telling us that this "crisis" was caused by Asians and that they chose to manipulate us into this Bail Out. I suspect he feels that this is a declaration of fiscal war.

Because we, the people, are clearly not being given the facts and Congress conducted no hearings with economists, I am certain that the story we are being told is false. I suspect the Asian Markets threatened to stop investing in American debt if we didn't buy back the trashy investments they thought were good as gold.

I look for the war to continue.....and I expect it to be bad. I am afraid we don't have as many allies as we did back in the day of Pearl Harbor however.

[Chicago48]

It won't make any effect on the economy because too many people have had to take pay cuts, either because they lost their job and found one that paid less, or their employer cut their hours. People do not have money. They have credit. They have rising health insurance. Until you get to the medical bill problems and health costs, the economy will stay in the dumper.

Oh yeh, get out of these overseas wars. We can't even afford to buy gas for the Army vehicles.

[darthdarcy]

We needed a bottom up fix that Reset the Sub Prime Mortgages then the packages they are bundled in would again be real viable assets..!

We already know trickle down does not work..!

[DonDavis]

Forget Main Street, Credit Crunch Hits Cartoon Characters
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=3663

[MIKEBC]

GOP DEPRESSION #2 -JOE SIX PACK CAN NOW ONLY AFFORD 4 BEERS

[curiousasheck]

This bailout isn't going to save us when the credit derivative swaps (CDS) market rolls over next with $55-60 trillion involved.

[l.blissett]

don't have long to wait.

fannie & freddie's go on the auction block as of monday.

now you know why they were under a deadline to get this passed.

[leftLibertarian]

The bail out bill for billionaires will only prolong the recession. And like greedy PIGS Wall Street will come with tin cup in hand asking for MORE.

[MrKINOKO]

I remember in the Army they used to call the body bags "tarps" because it was a more field expedient name, and more pc for the civilians. This bogo-bailout isn't a tarp, it's an economic body bag that all 300 million of us may have to squeeze into in the coming months. Good work Bush/Cheney/McCain/Gramm/Leiberman/assorted other scumb@g$....wonderful job.

[wm1066]

Dont forget Reid and Pelosi and all of the Democratic leaders. I am so angry with my congressman I wont vote for him this election and I was planning to vote solid Democrat this November. I am not voting for one incumbant this season and I will remember who voted for this.

[deliriousgod]

throwing a TARP over it? it isn't going to turn into one of those 'project cars' that decorate so many driveways, is it?

[MyVoiceHere]

The new President on November 5th needs to tell all members of Congress to start working on the new stimulus plan with his principles he wants to see. That way on January 21st they will have started the groundwork to rightfully set the economy back on track. Restarting the economy has to be a bipartisan effort. I did wish that they would have sucked up and made a unanimous vote to show the world that we mean business about repairing our economy. We can put out the fire first and then prevent another fire. After that is done we can work on the arsonists.

[Erdgeist]

We are far from leaning lessons of economic history. Historically speaking, financial markets have only brought economic downturns beginning with the South Sea Bubble of 1720. Maybe this Congress doesn't have the stomach for it, but we need legislation that will enable the draconian control of Wall Street by the Fed. By the way, Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Fed, is relatively cheap and very smart. I think he makes about 200K a year.