2 firms selected for mortgage securities program: Barclays, State Street

[Hannah Bell]

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
9 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department has picked two financial institutions to manage a program it unveiled last month to provide support for beleaguered mortgage-backed securities.

The government announced Friday it was hiring London-based Barclays Global Investors and State Street Bank and Trust Co. of Boston to manage its program to purchase mortgage-backed securities.<<

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081003/ap_on_bi_ge/treasury_fannie_freddie;_ylt=Aq5F1QZIYiy8WyATkwHVsyis0NUE



Didn't waste any time, did they? what is it, an hour after the vote?

It's a global banking circle-jerk.

[Junkdrawer]

1. Gone in 60 seconds....

or less

[NMDemDist2]

2. fer Gawd's sake, we're even outsourcing our economic rescue

:banghead:

[Hannah Bell]

4. not only - they already started spending the money.

>>Zuccarelli said that Barclays and State Street had begun making purchases<<


they must have had the whole thing ready to go.

barclays to spend in the foreign funds.

[gravity]

9. It is the smart thing to do

If you are in charge of managing billions of dollars in assets, you would hire some of the best talent in the world to help you out.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. I just have this horrible feeling that we will live to regret this bailout...

[tama]

5. Well

as they say, it's better to regret what one has done than to regret what has been left undone. It's been an experience... LOL

[Oregone]

7. "they" are idiots. Id rather regret not shooting someone than regret doing it behind bars.

[tama]

10. Agreed

It's a very egotistic point of view. I prefere saying that "when in hole, stop digging" and "better to stop doing what is causing the problem rather that trying to fix the problem by causing more and worse problems." E.g., you can't cure greed with more greed.

[Kip Humphrey]

6. Rest assured that your horrible feeling is ...correct!

[Junkdrawer]

8. Looks like we won't know HOW FAST they're spending the money until AFTER the election...

From the cited AP story:

...

Zuccarelli said that Barclays and State Street had begun making purchases but she refused to say how much had been spent so far. She said the government would give an accounting of that amount in the Treasury Department's monthly report on the federal budget.


I just went to the Treasury site:
http://fms.treas.gov/mts/index.html

Current Issue is August. No word on when September might be out. This spending will be in the October report.

[tama]

11. Check this

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

100 billion more debt the first day of this fiscal year, "only" 25 billion the next day. September - or rather, last few days of September, added 380 billion of debt which for FY 2008 totalled over one trillion. And none of that included the "bailout".