Okay, so apparently the futures are popping because Geithner finally set some details forth on the new plan to subsidize private acquisition of difficult to value/market/sell assets via the use of tax dollars, allowing private investors to leverage their money 6 to 1, in a non-recourse fashion, with the government providing the financing above and beyond the minimum capital amount invested by private investors.
I think the details on this are still rather scarce, but does anyone here think this will be an effective and significant plan in terms of cleansing the currently impaired balance sheets of financial institutions and other bag holders of the 'toxic assets' at the center of the financial crisis?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/business/21bank.html?_r=1&hp
Although the details of the F.D.I.C. part were still being completed on Friday, it is expected that the government will provide the overwhelming bulk of the money â possibly more than 95 percent â through loans or direct investments of taxpayer money.
The hope is that such a generous taxpayer subsidy will attract private investors into the market and accelerate the recovery of the countryâs banks.
The key protection for taxpayers, according to people briefed on the plan, is that the private investors will bid in auctions against each other for the assets. As a result, administration officials contend, the government will be buying the troubled loans of the banks at a deep discount to their original face value.
Because the government can hold those mortgages as long as it wants, officials are betting the government will be repaid and that taxpayers may even earn a profit if the market value of the loans climbs in the years to come.
To entice private investors like hedge funds and private equity firms to take part, the F.D.I.C. will provide nonrecourse loans â that is, loans that are secured only by the value of the mortgage assets being bought â worth up to 85 percent of the value of a portfolio of troubled assets.
The remaining 15 percent will come from the government and the private investors. The Treasury would put up as much as 80 percent of that, while private investors would put up as little as 20 percent of the money, according to industry officials. Private investors, then, would be contributing as little as 3 percent of the equity, and the government as much as 97 percent.
I think the details on this are still rather scarce, but does anyone here think this will be an effective and significant plan in terms of cleansing the currently impaired balance sheets of financial institutions and other bag holders of the 'toxic assets' at the center of the financial crisis?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/business/21bank.html?_r=1&hp
Although the details of the F.D.I.C. part were still being completed on Friday, it is expected that the government will provide the overwhelming bulk of the money â possibly more than 95 percent â through loans or direct investments of taxpayer money.
The hope is that such a generous taxpayer subsidy will attract private investors into the market and accelerate the recovery of the countryâs banks.
The key protection for taxpayers, according to people briefed on the plan, is that the private investors will bid in auctions against each other for the assets. As a result, administration officials contend, the government will be buying the troubled loans of the banks at a deep discount to their original face value.
Because the government can hold those mortgages as long as it wants, officials are betting the government will be repaid and that taxpayers may even earn a profit if the market value of the loans climbs in the years to come.
To entice private investors like hedge funds and private equity firms to take part, the F.D.I.C. will provide nonrecourse loans â that is, loans that are secured only by the value of the mortgage assets being bought â worth up to 85 percent of the value of a portfolio of troubled assets.
The remaining 15 percent will come from the government and the private investors. The Treasury would put up as much as 80 percent of that, while private investors would put up as little as 20 percent of the money, according to industry officials. Private investors, then, would be contributing as little as 3 percent of the equity, and the government as much as 97 percent.
