Nice. 9.7 trillion here, 9.7 trillion there, pretty soon we're talking real money. U.S. Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailouts as Senate Votes http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok&refer=home By Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the governmentâs commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nationâs 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 recipientsâ names have not been disclosed. âWeâve seen money go out the back door of this government unlike any time in the history of our country,â Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, said on the Senate floor Feb. 3. âNobody 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?â Financial Rescue The pledges, amounting to almost two-thirds of the value of everything produced in the U.S. last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up about 18 months ago. The promises are composed of about $1 trillion in stimulus packages, around $3 trillion in lending and spending and $5.7 trillion in agreements to provide aid. Federal Reserve lending to banks peaked at a record $2.3 trillion in December, dropping to $1.83 trillion by last week. The Fed balance sheet is still more than double the $880 billion it was in the week before Sept. 17 when it agreed to accept lower-quality collateral. The worst financial crisis in two generations has erased $14.5 trillion, or 33 percent, of the value of the worldâs companies since Sept. 15; brought down Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.; and led to the takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. by Bank of America Corp. The $9.7 trillion in pledges would be enough to send a $1,430 check to every man, woman and child alive in the world. Itâs 13 times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office data, and is almost enough to pay off every home mortgage loan in the U.S., calculated at $10.5 trillion by the Federal Reserve. âAll the Stopsâ âThe Fed, Treasury and FDIC are pulling out all the stops to stop any widespread systemic damage to the economy,â said Dana Johnson, chief economist for Comerica Inc. in Dallas and a former senior economist at the central bank. âThe federal government is on the hook for an awful lot of money but I think itâs needed to help the financial system recover.â Bloomberg News tabulated data from the Fed, Treasury and FDIC and interviewed regulators, economists and academic researchers to gauge the full extent of the governmentâs rescue effort. Commitments may expand again soon. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner postponed an announcement scheduled for today that was to focus on new guarantees for illiquid assets to insure against losses without taking them off banksâ balance sheets. The Treasury said it would delay the announcement until after the Senate votes on the stimulus package. Program Delay The government is already backing $301 billion of Citigroup Inc. securities and another $118 billion from Bank of America. The government hasnât yet paid out on any of the guarantees. The Fed said Friday that it is delaying the start a $200 billion program called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, to revive the market for securities based on consumer loans such as credit-card, auto and student borrowings. Most of the spending programs are run out of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where Geithner served as president. He was sworn in as Treasury secretary on Jan. 26. When Congress approved the TARP on Oct. 3, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledged the need for transparency and oversight. The Federal Reserve so far is refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return. Collateral is an asset pledged by a borrower in the event a loan payment isnât made. Fed Sued Bloomberg requested details of Fed lending under the Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit against the central bank Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure of borrower banks and their collateral. Arguments in the suit may be heard as soon as this month, according to the court docket. Bloomberg asked the Treasury in an FOIA request Jan. 28 for a detailed list of the securities it planned to guarantee for Citigroup and Bank of America. Bloomberg hasnât received a response to the request. The Bloomberg lawsuit is Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). For Related News and Information: To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Pittman in New York at mpittman@bloomberg.net; Bob Ivry in New York at bivry@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: February 9, 2009 00:01 EST
US spent 5 trillion on Iraq and Afganistan, why not spend 1 trillion on the US economy. I think that's the more important priority. That's what irritates me about the conservatives in the Senate arguing against another couple hundred billion when they were in full force supporting the wars with funding. They were blasting money out the door when Bush was president, but now they are conservative when it comes to helping our economy.
They should have paid off bad and good mortgages instead of giving it to banks. So much for the recardian equivalence thing.
Jeez Louise... You'd think for $9T, we could have let the bad banks fail and use our money to shore-up mortgages and recapitalize wherever necessary. Oops... forgot for a moment... the wrong people would have lost that way... Why doesn't it sink in? The Gummint is taking money away from the "hard working and responsible"... then giving it to those who have already fucked up and lost TONS. Can't we get rid of such a stupid, greedy, and unfair Gummint?
A serious question here What is the sum of all private mortgages / credits handed out during 1997 and 2007 in the US and UK housing market. The whole figure can't be much higher (if that high), that makes me ask where the money is actually sinking in.