Thursday, January 15, 2009

More Bailouts, Ho-Hum

Get ready to pay bad banks even more of your money:

The move to provide more money for Bank of America would support the growing consensus among financial experts that Treasury's bailout program so far won't be enough to stabilize banks reeling from bad mortgage loans and falling home prices. As the recession deepens, consumers and businesses are increasingly defaulting on other loans, such as those involving credit cards and commercial real estate, analysts say.
(snip)

"Will we need TARP 2.0?" asked Vincent R. Reinhart, former director of the Federal Reserve's monetary affairs division. "The first half wasn't used effectively, so we're certainly going to need the second half. But it probably won't be enough."


The silence that greets the likelihood of even more bailouts after the TARP has been emptied is like "the dog that didn't bark" in one of Sherlock Holmes' mysteries (which one, I don't know or care). People just don't care anymore. That means another TARP will happen, probably by Q209.

I'm definitely going to start shorting financials again very soon.