Great let's support those banks that got us here in the first place.
The printing presses are rolling as we read this
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/03/22/administration_wants_to_buy_up_banks_toxic_assets_ 1237697074/

Thats alot of vegetables.

Reading the details I don't think it's as bad as it sounds. The government isn't just throwing money at the problem, it's more a plan where extra government assistance and expertise is applied to entice private companies to buy a lot of the bad loans as well.

Also, it's probably worth noting that the Government hasn't been just throwing money into the fire. There are a lot of equities and loans (granted, not good loans) representing assets that hold value for the taxpayer. It may be silly to think the taxpayer will actually see any of this money again, but on paper at least that's the way it looks assuming the economy recovers in a reasonable amount of time.

I guess the question will be, is it enough? Many experts think the issue isn't doing too much now, but rather knowing when to back off so we don't overshoot the target and really cause hyper inflation from all the extra currency.

-spence

so who would buy these assets given the knowing 'you probably won't get your money back'?

Even if you get a 'margin' account from the feds it seems like a stretch to think private equity would go for it.