U.S. GOVERNMENT NOW PROPPING UP MONEY MARKET FUNDS
September 19th, 2008Via: CNN:
The Treasury Department said Friday it will provide temporary relief for the U.S. money market fund industry by pledging to insure the holdings of any publicly offered money market mutual fund.
The agency said it would guarantee up to $50 billion dollars for the next year for both retail and institutional investors.
Money market funds invest in short-term debt issued by the federal government or by companies, and are widely used by consumers as a place to stash their extra cash.
Typically, putting money in these funds was thought to be as safe as money in the bank.
But these funds, which also serve as a fundamental source of financing for both financial institutions and capital markets, have come under severe strain in recent days following the dramatic events from earlier this week including the dramatic collapse of Lehman Brothers and the federal government’s rescue of the insurance giant AIG.
The Treasury Department said the action should help return some confidence to the market and alleviate investors’ fears about the ability for money market mutual funds to absorb a loss.
Several financial institutions – including Wachovia’s Evergreen Investments and Frank Russell Funds – announced plans Thursday to step in to prop up their funds now, but experts seemed certain that they could not do it indefinitely.
Just about had with the evening news here. A “rally” on Wall Street cause of another bail out.
Well sure, if you’ve committed a crime (bundling mortgages that are worth sh*t and sold them for a profit) this is pass go, stay out of jail time.
Let the good times roll, cause the “adults” in the building can’t think of anything better than using tax payer dollars to bail, bail, bail, all that water that is sinking that big ole ship of Wall Street.
I think instead of a bail out, we should have a TIME OUT. SEND THE KIDS TO THEIR ROOMS TO BALANCE THEIR BOOKS. STOP GIVING THEM MY MONEY TO PLAY WITH.
AAARRRGH.
SHUT DOWN THE MARKETS.
THIS IS NOT A FREE MARKET.
THIS IS BUSH AND HIS CRONIES GETTING MORE PAYBACK FROM HUMANS. OR IS IT JUST PLAIN OLE ROBBERY?
Just for grins, I’ll be watching the movie “Wall Street.” If you haven’t watched it, its a classic that shows just what the diseases of GREED and CONSUMERISM do to a person.
And there’s always that classic line from Gordon Gekko (yeah the irony they named him after a lizard), “GREED IS GOOD.”
PHHHHT.
I think the guys now make Gordon Gecko look like a choir boy.