Brutto

Fannie/Freddie Bailout 'Disastrous Fiasco'

To User 125027; the unlimited checkbook you mention, would that be the US dollar printing press that has been overheating since 2001?

In the long run you may be right: The liabilities taken on by the government may be balanced by the "assets". Problem is, as John Maynard Keynes pointed out, in the long run we are all dead. In the meantime ask Bill Miller how well he's done by taking a medium term "value" view on these stocks.

The scary thing about this particular socialisation of losses is that it was deemed necessary despite everyone being reassured, not so long ago, that the Fed would effectively stand behind FNM and FRE debt if push came to shove.

It seems that even this wasn't good enough any more for investors - they needed the security of seeing the junk physically on Uncle Sam's balance sheet. Great vote of confidence....