Sunday, September 28, 2008

Breakthrough Reached in Negotiations on Bailout

New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders and the Bush administration reached a tentative agreement early Sunday on what may become the largest financial bailout in American history, authorizing the Treasury to purchase $700 billion in troubled debt from ailing firms in an extraordinary intervention to prevent widespread economic collapse.

Officials said that Congressional staff members would work through the night to finalize the language of the agreement and draft a bill, and that the bill would be brought to the House floor for a vote on Monday.The bill includes pay limits for some executives whose firms seek help, aides said. And it requires the government to use its new role as owner of distressed mortgage-backed securities to make more aggressive efforts to prevent home foreclosures.In some cases, the government would receive an equity stake in companies that seek aid, allowing taxpayers to profit should the rescue plan work and the private firms flourish in the months and years ahead.The White House also agreed to strict oversight of the program by a Congressional panel and conflict-of-interest rules for firms hired by the Treasury to help run the program.

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Lawmakers Reach Tentative Bailout Deal Wall Street Journal

Credit crunch banker leaps to his death in front of express train Mail Online

Wall Street Executives Made $3 Billion Before Crisis Bloomberg

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting watching the Democrats in the Congress and Senate running around saying they have to bailout the Banks and pass a bill.

But they the Congress and the Senate hold the majority in both houses.....so what are they waiting for? Why are they trying to pass off their responsibility to the GOP.

All most a replay of Glen Clark and his band of Bosheviks in the 90's in BC. Always some elses fault.

The NDP did or attempted to do a bailout of the "FastCats" in BC.
What was supposed to cost $300 million dollars ended being amortized over 20 years for about $1.25 billion. A lot of hospitals could have been built in BC for that amount.

Likewise in the States, 40 million people are without health insurance, how much health insurance would $700 billion dollars provide.