WELCOME TO THE REVOLUTION!
... minus the legislation and done as a "term facility", but with almost the same flare, right ($200 billion is a lot of bling)?:
"The big problem has been the financials, and this helps supply money directly to the banks and may take some of the need for aggressive rate cutting off the table," said Peter Dunay, chief investment strategist at Meridian Equity Partners. "The Fed is basically going to take the bad loans off the banks' books, and the market seems to be loving that idea." - link
Welcome to the Revolution! Party like it is 1933!
WE'VE BEEN PUNKED
What? Not what you had in mind?
Publicly, Free-Marketeers are going to be outraged! incensed! condemnatory! Privately, one can easily bet that they are counting among their blessings "big-government economics" in the form of "Federalized assistance" ... yeah, "assistance".
Oh, the humanity. We've been punked. (Mozilo looked more tan than Boesky, in his day, yes?)
By the way, they are doing the right thing. That's the sad truth. Unfortunately, there are few or no statues against near criminal stupidity that costs others, so you just have to smile and like it, I guess ...
