Monday, December 22, 2008

O Hai! I Can Have Has Bailout 2 PLZ? K THX!







Grupe and others in the real estate industry have been meeting with officials at the Federal Reserve and asking the government for help.

The government has already announced a $200 billion plan to try to restart the market for credit cards, car loans and other consumer debt. Basically, the government is providing guarantees to get investors to buy up these securities again. So Grupe says the commercial real estate industry wants that program expanded to include these commercial loans.

"In our conversations with the Federal Reserve, I think it's fair to say that the senior staff indicated that they are open to a program like this," he says.
"They recognize the problem." Some economists think the government should take action here.

"This is the next big problem for the financial system and the broader economy," says Mark Zandi, who heads up Moody's Economy.com.

Zandi says the problem is that if all these big real estate loans can't get refinanced, that would mean more losses for the already-staggering banks.

"The banks and financial system broadly don't have enough capital as it is and if they have to take big losses on commercial real estate," he says "It undermines their capital position even more and they can't extend credit to anybody."

Zandi says this is one of the next areas we are likely to see the government trying to intervene to stop the financial crisis from getting worse.

He expects this to be the worst recession in 50 years and so he and other economists think the government should be doing all it can.





And then I found this: http://icanhazbailout.com/


Finally, my love of LOLCats is met with sarcastic pictures with captions!




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