Even Healthy Banks Eye Bailout Bucks

Treasury will set 'floor price' on distressed assets to lure buyers

(NEWSER) - The Treasury's latest plan to rescue the banking industry relies heavily on private-sector investors, the New York Times reports. The government will guarantee a floor price on the toxic assets weighing down banks’ balance sheets, encouraging hedge funds, private equity groups, and even insurers to buy them. The plan should reduce the need for federal fundraising and mitigate the risk to taxpayers. More»

Veterans of S&L bailouts in catbird seat in current crisis

(NEWSER) - For a tight-knit group of former top government officials, the current financial crisis is a golden opportunity. Veterans of the savings and loan bailout of the 1990s, these operatives, now mostly lawyers and bank advisers, are doing a brisk business telling clients how to profit from the meltdown, the New York Times reports. “It is a good time to be me,” said one lawyer who helped found the Resolution Trust Corporation. More»

(NEWSER) - The incoming administration and the outgoing Treasury Department are at a standoff over the second half of the $700 billion bailout, reports the Wall Street Journal. Whether Barack Obama is reluctant to overstep or wary of being associated with Bush administration policies isn't clear, but the Journal reports that unidentified "Treasury officials have grown frustrated with the Obama transition team's unwillingness to engage in specifics." More»

Bush administration 'creatively working' on financial crisis

(NEWSER) - On the eve of his testimony before Congress, beleaguered Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson used last night's speech to defend the administration's response to the nation's "unprecedented" financial crisis. Paulson said without the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, things would be even worse, ABC News reports. "It's hard to get credit for what didn't happen," he said. More»

Low fees for managers and lack of Treasury manpower put brakes on bailout

(NEWSER) - Though the $700 billion bailout deal won approval Oct. 3, the Treasury has yet to begin purchasing bad loans that are poisoning the credit pool, due to delays in hiring financial firms to oversee the program, the Wall Street Journal reports. Concern over the fees that will be paid to managers, laborious vetting to avoid conflicts of interests, and a lack of manpower at the Treasury have hamstrung the process, feeding investor uncertainty. More»