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Speaking of buying up debt, does anybody else remember how, early in 2009, the Obama administration set up exchanges for private investors to buy toxic assets f
by gruseom 14y ago
Speaking of buying up debt, does anybody else remember how, early in 2009, the Obama administration set up exchanges for private investors to buy toxic assets from financial institutions with government support? I remember Geithner announcing this with much fanfare as the program to return large banks to solvency. There was a brief controversy, and then the whole thing seemed to just disppear. My impression is that it turned out the banks didn't want to sell at a price anyone wanted to pay. But I've always been curious: what really happened? Is it public knowledge?
(Sorry for going off-topic... my excuse is that some of the same debt is probably involved, albeit through many layers of indirection and far downstream in the collection process.)
- hammock 14y agoIt is called the PPIP (Public-Private Investment Program) Some info: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/01/richard-alford-why-has-the-ppip-scandal-been-swept-under-the-rug.html http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/01/richard-alford-why-ha... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/04/ppip-banks-making-a-killi_n_410203.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/04/ppip-banks-making-a... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-Private_Investment_Program_for_Legacy_Assets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-Private_Investment_Progr...
- gruseom 14y agoThanks. I skimmed those links and found it all confusing. What I got was, approximately: it still exists, it's relatively small ($30B is small in financial crisis terms), and its activities have not been particularly transparent. On the other hand, http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/financial-stability/reports/Documents/External%20Report%20-%2009-12%20vFinal.pdf http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/financial-stability/repo....