Auto Loan

Barack Obama's Special Olympics line on Leno got all the headlines, but the night's real money quote was his saying that his administration plans to "set up a securitized market for student loans and auto loans outside of the banking system" in order to "get credit flowing again." Excuse me, but isn't that what the $700 billion bank bailout was supposed to do? So what happened? Instead of lending the billions we gave them, Obama explained to Leno, the bailed out banks "are keeping it in the bank because their balance sheets had gotten so bad." Imagine that: zombie banks using taxpayer money to stay afloat. If the White House really didn't see that one coming, it's no wonder the ferocity of the public's reaction to the AIG bonuses caught them so off-guard.