The sticking points in the bailout plan

It’s going to be an interesting week. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has asked Congress for a $700 billion blank check to buy junky mortgage securities. This was in keeping with the “trust me” approach that Paulson first tried out with Congress in July in the case of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–Give me the leeway to do whatever I deem

Forget Wall Street. What about the rest of us?

Ethan Harris, the chief U.S. economist at bankrupt Lehman Brothers, says it’s been “the most tumultuous two weeks of my personal and professional life.” Even on Friday, with the tumult settled somewhat by Barclays’ purchase of Lehman’s core business and Hank Paulson’s plans to purchase the American financial system, things were still …

AIG: Still a company

I know AIG was like half a dozen freak-outs ago, but I was still happy to see in the WSJ this morning that the insurance company’s new CEO is talking about what’s next. Happy because I’m sure a lot of people with AIG policies want to know. Here’s an excerpt:

Edward Liddy, the new chief executive of American International Group Inc.,

Money market funds: Are they safe?

This morning Treasury came out saying it would backstop money market mutual funds, shoring up investor confidence to prevent a mass exodus. As I wrote yesterday, that’s the much bigger threat to money markets right now—mass redemptions, not funds marking down the value of bad assets (e.g., commercial paper from the now-bankrupt Lehman …

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