October 9, 2008 US could copy British bailout

[questionmark]

October 9, 2008

US could copy British-style bank bailout

Philippe Naughton

The Bush Administration is considering following Gordon Brown's example and using hundreds of billions of dollars of bailout money to take ownership stakes in ailing US banks.

An Administration official said that no decision had yet been made on how to spend $700 billion of funds authorised by Congress last week, but the terms of the bailout law allowed the Treasury to support bank recapitalisation in turn for shares.

That partial nationalisation is the cornerstone of a £50 billion rescue package announced yesterday by the Prime Minister and Chancellor, Alistair Darling, which will be supported with £450 billion in liquidity funding and loan guarantees.

Combined with co-ordinated worldwide interest rate cuts, the rescue package appears to have helped calm market nerves. Although still volatile, the FTSE 100 was trading 2.4 per cent higher this morning after Asian bourses showed small gains.

Mr Brown was also in bullish mood this morning as he pledged to get tough with City fat cats, despite rebuking David Cameron, the Tory leader, in the Commons yesterday for having expressed similar sentiments.

“Our economy is built around people who work hard, who show effort, who take responsible decisions, and whether there is excessive and irresponsible risk-taking, that has got to be punished," he told GMTV.

Mr Brown said the banks who signed up to the rescue plan would have to accept that there could be no more huge bonus pay-outs for their top executives. “The days of big bonuses are over. One of the conditions of us helping the banks is that we will have to reach an agreement about their executive remuneration,” he said.

Unveiling the package yesterday, Mr Brown and Mr Darling were keen to present it as a different solution to that adopted by the United States, where the main focus has been to use taxpayer funds to clear "toxic assets" - unrecoverable mortgage debt - from the balance sheets of stricken lenders.

Full story, source: The Times

[chemical-licker]

well the english think of everything first

[questionmark]

well the english think of everything first

(Mr. Brown was third with that plan, first were the Dutch and Belgians, then the Germans - though there was little to rescue there)

[Moon Monkey]

Didn't the Swedes do something similar in the early 90's as well ?

[1.618]

well the english think of everything first

I would heartily agree if it weren't for the fact that brown is a scot.

[questionmark]

Didn't the Swedes do something similar in the early 90's as well ?

And the Greeks in the 80s, then reverted it when they adopted the Harvard model, now they are back at trying to nationalize.

[chemical-licker]

I would heartily agree if it weren't for the fact that brown is a scot.

SHUT UP, I KILL YOU

[1.618]

SHUT UP, I KILL YOU

LMAO you erroneous cockney infidel