U.S. Treasury Widens Scope of Plan to Buy Bad Debt

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: Bloomberg.com

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration widened the scope of its $700 billion plan to avert a financial meltdown by including assets other than mortgage-related securities.

The U.S. Treasury submitted revised guidance to Congress on its plan a day after first submitting it, as lawmakers and lobbyists push their own ideas. Officials now propose buying what they term troubled assets, without specifying the type, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News and confirmed by a congressional aide.

The change suggests the inclusion of instruments such as car and student loans, credit-card debt and any other troubled asset. That may force an eventual increase in the size of the package as Democrats and Republicans in Congress negotiate the final legislation with the Bush administration, analysts said.

``The costs of the bailout will be significantly higher than originally considered or acknowledged,'' said Josh Rosner, an analyst with independent research firm Graham Fisher & Co. in New York. ``How, given these changes, can the administration and Federal Reserve believe they are being forthright in their unrevised expectation of future losses?''



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYXtwpG9mw9g&refer=home

---

Please wake me up when this nightmare is over.

[williesgirl]

1. This is fucking ridiculous. Let the bank eat their credit card debt that resulted from them pushing

cards on folks they knew up front couldn't afford them. Make them freeze the interest on old balances with a proper repayment plan. Make them eat their greedy decisions of the past 20 years.

[phusion]

2. I was thinking that this would happen.

The size of this crisis is just too big to be contained...

This is going to hurt. Bad.

[DJ13]

3. I think Paulson is trying to jack the price up so high that Congress cant get concessions

Typical Republican ploy.

[KoKo]

4. Yep...they want to "drown Government in so much debt" Gover's Bathtub is finally drained and

our taxdollars go down with the soap Bubbles...of Greenspan. lax Repug Oversight and Phil Gramm's Folly! :puke:

[Andy823]

23. Yep, say hello to

Daddy Bush's "new world order" where the rich get richer and the poor get to pay for all screw ups of the rich!

[Zhade]

5. Who didn't see THAT coming?

#5

[prolesunited]

6. Unbelievable

This is complete and utter shit and I think anyone who votes for it, Dem or Repug, will pay for it by losing their seat.

[Faith No More]

7. Looks like all the hogs are wanting to get their snouts in the trough.

They don't even want to reveal exactly WHAT we're going to pay for.

[LonelyLRLiberal]

8. Hell NO!

Especially credit card debt - bad credit card debt is mostly outrageous interest, late fees and overlimit fees. They should stick that where the sun don't shine.

These asses are getting greedier by the moment. I say slow this whole thing down.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. Hey, I got this old Internatinal tractor I been trying to sell.

It's messing up my cash flow. I think of it as a troubled asset.

How much you think Paulson will give me for it.

[Tutonic]

10. Can't prop this up beyond November 4th. We are entering a global

meltdown. If you voted for Bush or thought Maverick John had some good points--you deserve this. The rest of us will have to pay equally.

[Amonester]

11. And to think it all started with Arbusto Energy...

See where that ultimate fuckWad and his iRresponsible cRooks 'n cRonies led US??

HOLD ON TO YOUR ? (what you've got 'left')

[dweller]

18. BOOTSTRAPS ?

that's all they ever given me.

dp

[thecrow]

36. He couldn't run a company

and they expected him to run the U.S.?

[Zhade]

12. This is a game changer. Will the Dems STILL cave with this new info?

Obama, please speak up on this new development now!

[closeupready]

13. If they are going to do that, then they need to eliminate the means test for Chapter 7 so that

anyone who needs to file Chapter 7 can do so, regardless of income.

[amandabeech]

14. This is the Patriot Act redux.

I understand that we may have to put up SOME money to keep the whole thing from cratering, but this is INSANE.

Every pig has four feet in the trough!

Anyone who votes for this should be voted out of office!

If my dem congress critter votes for this, he may still get my vote in November, but I will work for an opponent in the primary as soon as one materializes.

[Zhade]

19. "he may still get my vote in November" - and thus the cycle perpetuates.

NT!

[amandabeech]

20. Voting for this thing is a huge mistake.

Or at least it looks like it now.

I'd like to vote against the guy this year, but putting a puke in office isn't going to do any good, and in fact, would in my estimation do even more wrong during the next two years, especially if the worst happens and McCain gets in, then promptly dies.
A dem congress critter would be a better bulwark against President Caribou Barbie than any Republican. The thought of someone who expects to see the Second Coming of Christ with her finger on the button is enough to give a reality-based person a heart attack.

I haven't been active in local politics in a long time, but a vote for something like this would get me interested again, and would keep my interest since I'll still be paying for it two years from now, if not until the end of my life.

So either use your brain to think more than two seconds into the future, or keep your perpetuating cycle to yourself.

[Zhade]

24. Looks like I touched a nerve.

The fact remains - even if you don't want to admit it - that they are counting on attitudes like yours.

They always have. For decades. See where it's gotten us?

Of course, I don't have a solution. But I'm not about to reward those who sell me out. I won't vote for (e.g.) an anti-gay Dem.

Anyone who endorses and supports this madness is not only NOT deserving of my vote, they're deserving of being booted out of office and imprisoned for the treason of taxation without representation.

The world's in too much of a crisis for me to care if people like that stance.

[amandabeech]

33. I'm not suffering fools well this evening.

So what are you going to do. Vote for the Puke? Vote third party and let the puke win this time?

Real helpful.

The action is in the primaries and they're over for two years.

So if you are advocating voting against the Democrats in this election, I suggest that you leave this board.

[amandabeech]

21. dupe

[phusion]

15. Gee why don't we just wipe all debt clean

and start over. No masters, no slaves.

Project Mayhem?
:shrug:

[oioioi]

16. Cool - so we can stop paying our credit card bills then.

[Amonester]

22. It's like Santa!!

So all we've gotta do is, send the bills back in an envelope without any check in it.

Just a note that says: "Send it to Paulson. He'll pay all of it. THANKS!"

[closeupready]

27. Hee hee hee - that's funny!

:rofl: :D

[seafan]

17. Whoa! "Treasury said firms that are headquartered outside the U.S. will now be eligible."

Does this mean all of those corporations that have a PO Box in the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas or Bermuda? Like Halliburton? Tyco?


We already know that foreign banks are in on this bailout, specifically Barclays and UBS. Coincidentally, John McCain's top economic adviser, Phil Gramm, is vice chairman of UBS's US division and a lobbyist for UBS. Isn't that nice?


And not only that, but Paulson now says that he wants to include in his bailout car loans, student loans, credit-card debt and other *unspecified* debt???


Holy Cow!


U.S. Treasury Widens Scope of Plan to Buy Bad Debt (Update1) , September 21, 2008

.....

The U.S. Treasury submitted revised guidance to Congress on its plan a day after first submitting it, as lawmakers and lobbyists push their own ideas. Officials now propose buying what they term troubled assets, without specifying the type, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News and confirmed by a congressional aide.

The change suggests the inclusion of instruments such as car and student loans, credit-card debt and any other troubled asset. That may force an eventual increase in the size of the package as Democrats and Republicans in Congress negotiate the final legislation with the Bush administration, analysts said.

``The costs of the bailout will be significantly higher than originally considered or acknowledged,'' said Josh Rosner, an analyst with independent research firm Graham Fisher & Co. in New York. ``How, given these changes, can the administration and Federal Reserve believe they are being forthright in their unrevised expectation of future losses?''

In another change today, the Treasury said it would limit its $50 billion plan for insuring money-market funds to those held by investors as of Sept. 19, excluding any subsequent contributions.

The American Bankers' Association, which had expressed concern about the plan last week, praised the move, saying it would eliminate an incentive for savers to shift out of bank accounts into money-market funds.

In its latest guidance on the bad-debt fund, the Treasury said firms that are headquartered outside the U.S. will now be eligible.

Hold onto your seats, hats, teeth and anything else, folks. This week is gonna be apocalyptic.

[daleo]

25. Every rich person with an overdrawn credit card

Will be jumping onto this bailout bandwagon now. Non-rich need not apply.

[thecrow]

37. How about us poor people with credit card debt?

Can we jump in on this too?

Oh... that will ruin our credit rating?
Will US citizens even HAVE a credit rating after this?
How will WE finance anything?

I'm so glad I took my son to Europe in 04.
We'll never be able to do that again, unless some country takes us in as refugees.

[grasswire]

26. where is the Carlyle Group in all this?

I believe the ghoulish elder Bushes are rubbing their hands with glee.

[Demobrat]

28. Right where they always are. Profiting - handsomely.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c1c452e6-82bb-11dd-a019-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

[Waiting For Everyman]

29. They're making the government a giant COLLECTION AGENCY!

Holy Cow!

You know what though? I read that the Feds will NOT be getting ownership of the debts themselves. That means that we pay, and then the banks STILL try to collect on the debt.

TWICE!

[JimDandy]

30. And now you won't even be able to discharge credit card or car loan debt in bankruptcy

Like student loans. The Feds will hound you for life to collect what they can and turn it all over to the bailouts. Paulson's audacity is mind-boggling.

[Miss Chybil]

31. Not.

And anybody who caves on this without putting in place the Obama requirements should be held to the fire the same way those who voted for the war on Iraq have been.

[JimDandy]

32. Christopher Low is an ASS (and not the good Dem kind):

``Just about everyone in the markets agrees the Paulson plan needs to be simple -- unencumbered by complications and penalties,'' Christopher Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York, wrote in a note to clients. ``Of course, Washington doesn't know how to do that.''

No humility there. No thank you U.S. middle class for bailing us out. Just SHIT on us and tell us to say "more please"!

Well, Mr. Low, I'd bet that just about every one of the 350,000,000 U.S. citizens not in the markets DON'T agree! We WANT oversight and to have spelled out EXACTLY what we're paying for, no small print allowed, unlike the godd*** contracts "everyone in the markets" make US sign.

[sunnystarr]

34. The article ends with saying:

In its latest guidance on the bad-debt fund, the Treasury said firms that are headquartered outside the U.S. will now be eligible.

So now we're gonna pay for the rest of the world too?

[annabanana]

35. "assets other than mortgage-related securities"????

That's ridiculous. Perhaps they are larding it up in order to have something for the Dems to cut without losing their original intent?

[GinaMaria]

38. No No No, Not just No, Hell NO!

:mad: