> ...for *anything*?
>
> How is that even conceivable?
>
> What trillion-dollar clock could possibly be ticking so fast the
> United States government could not reset it by a week or two?
>
> Who, exactly, needs hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the
> month and why?
>
> What the hell could possibly be going on that this kind of money is
> needed so suddenly?
>
> The only thing that makes sense is that the damage is already done and
> this is a cover-up.
>
> Anybody?
=========================================
Excluding the banks and utilities, corporate cash in the US is at an
all-time high. The housing and auto industries and heavily indebted
companies are in trouble, but major corporations across all the other
sectors are well equipped to deal with the credit squeeze. The big hedge
funds, commercial banks, and sovereign wealth funds are also sitting on
mountains of cash.
The credit markets have seized up, and the official concern bordering on panic about a global financial death spiral does seem geniuine enough. But there is enough private sector domestic and international capital sitting on the sidelines to recapitalize the banks.
However, I think there is, in effect, a capital strike going on designed to force a public rescue of the banks and a subsequent sorting out and fire sale of their (notionally) distressed assets. The entity being created by Treasury with congressional approval will make a market in these assets by buying high and reselling low. The private sector, including many of the banks which were holding these illiquid securities, will then sweep in to buy back the marked down assets and watch them appreciate as the financial sector recovers.
Warren Buffett's comment that he was buying into Goldman Sachs in anticipation of the bailout was revealing.
At least this is how it seems to me. I don't believe in conspiracies, but politics, war, and business do have a lot in common with poker and chess.