[lbo-talk] Can we afford to pay off all the swaps?

Bill Bartlett billbartlett at aapt.net.au
Fri Oct 17 23:46:01 PDT 2008


What's the problem? The US government can print as much money as it likes? Sure, they're buying toilet paper with it, but they're paying for it with what will become toilet paper, so its a fair deal.

Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas

At 11:34 PM -0700 17/10/08, Charles Peterson wrote:


>I've gleaned that all the money we've pumped into AIG
>(first the $85 billion, and then the ~$35 billion?)
>has gone straight out to settle AIG's Credit Default
>Swaps (i.e., the gambling debts for which they never
>bothered to have reserves), just at the moment they
>become due. Of course, as part of the swap, we've now
>got the toilet paper, isn't that nice.
>
>But exactly how long can the Fed and Treasury keep
>this up? How many trillions in CDS's did AIG write on
>one side?
>
>And aren't we on the hook for all the future losses at
>Fannie and Freddie? Isn't that potentially in the
>trillions also?
>
>The way this looks, when the bubble finishes
>deflating, the US public will have taken on nearly the
>entire loss.
>
>How big was the bubble above projected housing price
>baseline? $5 Trillion? Is anyone figuring the total
>cost we're on the hook for, not just the trillion
>peanuts we've shelled so far? And what if the
>collapse doesn't stop there?
>
>Is that correct? Am I missing something?
>
>And it seems even this is just a small part of the Fed
>and Treasury are doing. Going further, how many of
>the outstanding $65 Trillion in CDS are one-sided?
>And are we going to have to pay off other derivative
>losses also?
>
>Charles Peterson
>
>
>
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