Friday, August 10, 2007

Throwing Money Around

I'm no economist, but I'm really having a hard time understanding this:

Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Central banks in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Australia and Canada added about $135.7 billion to the banking system in an attempt to avert a crisis of confidence in global credit markets.

The Federal Reserve, in a second day of action in concert with the European Central Bank, provided $38 billion of reserves and pledged further funds ``as necessary,'' in a statement unprecedented since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The European Central Bank loaned 61.05 billion euros ($83.6 billion) after injecting a record amount yesterday.

``This is a situation of great uncertainty,'' said Alice Rivlin, a former Fed vice chairman who's now at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Central banks ``are all injecting credit in hopes that collectively they can stabilize things.''

Central banks in Japan and Australia also added funds as money-market rates rose. The subprime crisis is spreading after international investors in the past year piled into the U.S. market for debt backed by mortgages.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ah7K.eFz9xiU&refer=home


Where is all this money coming from? Isn't throwing more money into the market really just expanding the problems?

I admit that I really don't pay much attention to the stock market. Having spent most of my adult life only slightly above the poverty level, I'm not part of the "investor class". I have a small 401k from a previous job that I hope to collect on someday, but that's about it. As Mr. Dylan said, "when you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose".

3 comments:

Larry said...

They are propping up the Bush faltering economy to allow the funding of the needless war through 2008.

Watch how quickly the walls will collapse once Bush leaves office.

Distributorcap said...

and bush wants MORE tax cuts --- for corporations who pay practically no taxes right now

as steampipes explode, bridges collapse, mines cave-in and an endless money hole devours our boys and energy in the middle east....

glad those 25% or so STILL think the White House ass is doing a good job.

PS -- love your blog

Mauigirl said...

Amazing, isn't it? These stock market gamblers suddenly realize they bet on the wrong horse and now instead of taking their lumps they beg the government to bail them out. Which it is doing. There is so much wrong with the way this country runs.