Bill Seeks $500 Billion for FDIC Fund - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd is moving to allow the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to temporarily borrow as much as $500 billion from the Treasury Department.
…The FDIC would be able to borrow as much as $500 billion until the end of 2010 if the FDIC, Fed, Treasury secretary and White House agree such money is warranted. The bill would allow it to borrow $100 billion absent that approval. Currently, its line of credit with the Treasury is $30 billion.
Once the obvious implications of this sink into the markets and the media, I expect all hell to be out for lunch. If an appendage of the banking industry like Chris Dodd is being instructed by his owners to increase their credit line by 1700% (!!!), it’s a dead (pardon the term) giveaway as to what shape the bankers think their businesses are in.
And once the general public understands this, bank runs wouldn’t surprise the hell out of me.
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Uhm, could someone please tell me that we’re all still convinced that small to mid-sized regional banks are going to be okay. Otherwise, I’m going to be awake all night.
There has been a ton of frightening news since November 4, but this takes the cake. That is a truly terrifying amount of money for them to request.
Under the mattress is looking better and better.
FDIC’s troubles are looked at in a bit more detail here:
http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/2009/02/megan-depositors-ought-to-get-their.html
It’s ugly.
Let me know when Dodd boards a jet taking him to his “cottage” in Galway.
We’ll know then that the gig is up.
At that point, Katie bar the door.
ugly day in store for wall street.
obama would be better off starting a three day weekend, complete with strategy session, beyond limbaugh.
401k statments are going to going out in less than 2 months, and the sticker shock is going to blow the doors of the admin’s popularity.
They don’t have a point man on the economy, and the only adviser left with some broad credibility is volcker. He may be old, but I believe he stayed awake for the fiscal summit.
this is like a slow ritual death, based on unbending ideology. only taxing the rich can save us, otherwise we all go to hell together.
Jason VS, re. your cite:
COUNTERCOLUMN: The Adjunct of Evil
This was posted on February 14. Nice call.
I’ve been saying for the last year that when people complain about banks not lending out the bailout money, there is a very good reason for that — in certain cases, that money is being used to make sure YOUR CHECKS DON’T BOUNCE AND YOUR ATM CARDS KEEP WORKING.
BofA and Citibank customers in particular, take note.