U.S. Bailout, Stimulus Pledges Total $11.6 Trillion

All information culled from Bloomberg:

The following table details how the U.S. government has pledged more than $11.6 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers over the past 19 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Changes from the previous table, published Feb. 9, include a $787 billion economic stimulus package. The Federal Reserve has new lending commitments totaling $1.8 trillion. It expanded the Term Asset-Backed Lending Facility, or TALF, by $800 billion to $1 trillion and announced a $1 trillion Public-Private Investment Fund to buy troubled assets from banks.

MBA, CFA, BFD

"MBA, CFA, BFD."

I once had a boss that used that phrase anytime some greenhorn equity salesman would try to impress him with their spit-shined education credentials. I always got a kick out of that, especially since he was a CFA chartholder himself, and several of my colleagues had either an MBA, a CFA or both. He was a cynical man

It is done

It looks like both houses of Congress have agreed to the 1,000+ page, $787,000,000,000 "stimulus" package that is going to save our country from the abyss.

Before you accuse our elected officials of vigorously scratching the itch to spend our children's money, remember, it could have been worse:

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the stimulus package will cost $787 billion, rather than $789 billion lawmakers estimated earlier this week.

That is what passes as fiscal responsibility on Capitol Hill.

And this, from San Francisco's favorite carpetbagging daughter:

“The jobs the American people care about most -- their own -- will be dramatically safer the day that President Obama signs this plan into law,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.

The United States of Insolvency

This chart caught my eye over the weekend (from the Economist):

The biggest force behind the bond-market shock is the onslaught of new issuance as the government seeks to finance the gaping budget deficit, Fed liquidity programmes, mortgage purchases and bank bail-outs. Yields moved still higher this week partly on the Treasury’s

The time warp is stuck on continuous play

Trivia time! Guess the year of the following headline:

Fannie Mae to Loosen Rules for Home-Loan Refinancing

a) 1989
b) 1999
c) 2009

If you guessed "C" give yourself a prize!

From the article:

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company under government control, will loosen rules for homeowners seeking to lower their loan payments by refinancing.