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Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson’s speech this morning took any doubt about how far the government is going to go in this credit crisis and threw it out the window. Paulson proposed a complete bailout of the mortgage market by allowing the US government to absorb the bad mortgage debt out of the financial system. Leaving, you guessed it, you and me on the hook for all the bad loans that no one wants anymore.
We’ve been calling that for more than a year now – but who’s keeping score at this point.
Here’s a snip of Paulson’s speech on the mortgage bailout, read the whole thing if you can stomach it.
The federal government must implement a program to remove these illiquid assets that are weighing down our financial institutions and threatening our economy. This troubled asset relief program must be properly designed and sufficiently large to have maximum impact, while including features that protect the taxpayer to the maximum extent possible. The ultimate taxpayer protection will be the stability this troubled asset relief program provides to our financial system, even as it will involve a significant investment of taxpayer dollars. I am convinced that this bold approach will cost American families far less than the alternative – a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets unable to fund economic expansion.
As we work with the Congress to pass this legislation over the next week, other immediate actions will provide relief.
First, to provide critical additional funding to our mortgage markets, the GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will increase their purchases of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). These two enterprises must carry out their mission to support the mortgage market.
Second, to increase the availability of capital for new home loans, Treasury will expand the MBS purchase program we announced earlier this month. This will complement the capital provided by the GSEs and will help facilitate mortgage availability and affordability.
Last 3 posts by Morgan
- Subprime Bananas - June 28th, 2009
- Roubini: No confidence in government exit strategy - June 24th, 2009
- Goldman bonuses largest in firm's 140-year history - June 21st, 2009
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