I'd started writing this over the weekend, when things were looking particularly bleak. It's really amazing how every day is so volatile and bring a new headline. Following on the heels of my poverty awareness post, I'm inclined to be slightly less panicky. I've still got a job and a house and plenty of money in savings. Yes, my retirement accounts have taken a hit that makes me a bit nauseous at times, but I remind myself I'm years away from retiring & now is a good time to buy.
March 16: The Fed provides a $29 billion loan to JPMorgan Chase & Co. as part of its purchase of investment bank Bear Stearns.
May 2: The Fed increases the size of its loans to banks and lets them put up less-secure collateral.
July 11. Federal regulators seize Pasadena, Calif-based IndyMac, costing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. billions to compensate deposit-holders.
July 30: President Bush signs a housing bill including $300 billion in new loan authority for the government to back cheaper mortgages for troubled homeowners.
Sept. 7: The Treasury takes over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, putting them into a conservatorship and pledging up to $200 billion to back their assets.
Sept. 16: The Fed injects $85 billion into the failing American International Group, one of the world's largest insurance companies.
Sept. 16: The Fed pumps another $70 billion into the nation's financial system to help ease credit stresses.
Sept. 19: The Treasury temporarily guarantees money market funds against losses up to $50 billion.
Sept. 29: The Fed makes an extra $330 billion available to other central banks, boosting to $620 billion the amount available to the central bank through
currency "swap" arrangements, where dollars are traded for their currencies. It
also triples to $225 billion the amount available for short-term loans to U.S.
financial institutions.
Oct. 3: President Bush signs the $700 billion economic bailout package.
Oct. 6: The Fed increases a short-term loan program, saying it is boosting short-term lending to banks to $150 billion and that by year's end, $900 billion in potential overall credit will be outstanding. It also says it will begin paying interest on reserves that banks keep with the Fed in hopes of coaxing banks into keeping more money on deposit at the central bank.
Oct. 7: The Fed says it will start buying unsecured short-term debt, so-called "commercial paper," from companies.
Oct. 8: The Fed cuts the federal funds rate a half percentage point, to 1.5 percent. It
follows a one-quarter point cut on April 30 and a three-quarter point reduction
on March 18.
Oct. 8: The Fed agrees to lend AIG another $37.8 billion.
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$2.4 TRILLION LOST IN A YEAR – AP: “The Dow lost 128 points, giving the blue chips an eight-day loss of just under 2,400, or 22.1 percent. The average had its worst week on record in both point and percentage terms. The Standard & Poor's 500 index, the indicator most watched by market professionals, posted its worst weekly run since 1933. The latest loss also means the Dow is down 40.3 percent since reaching a record high close of 14,164.53 a year ago, on Oct. 9, 2007. The S&P 500, which reached its high of 1,565.15 the same day, is down 42.5 percent. Investors suffered a paper loss for the day of about $100 billion, as measured by the Dow Jones
Wilshire 5000 index. For the week, investors lost $2.4 trillion, and over the past year, the losses have piled up to $8.4 trillion.
GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Off to Little Rock (in the rain) today!
2 comments:
This is a great recap - I learned more here than reading all the CNN stuff coming out on this issue.
Thanks.
I think that's the first "LOLSenate" picture that I've seen.
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