Bailout

'Bailout' is an effort to protect Main Street In "OK, so where's the Boscov bailout?" (Sept. 23), Dan Rodricks once again proves that he just doesn't get it. The government's proposal to buy back bad mortgage debt is not a "bailout" for greedy Wall Street firms that made wrong bets. To the contrary, it is a bold and aggressive action intended to save the entire American economy from the painful contraction that could ensue if the current collapse of confidence in financial markets is allowed to continue unabated.

Supporters of a congressional bill that would shift the cost of the savings and loan bailout to the rich staged some street theater yesterday with Santa getting mugged.Santa carried a bag of presents labeled "Quality Education, National Health Insurance and Housing." A masked bandit sporting a sign saying "S&L banker" then grabbed the goodies. The drama was played out in front of 30 N. Calvert St., a closed branch of Baltimore Federal Financial, a defunct thrift that was taken over by the government.

You've got to appreciate living in a country with a government as benevolent as it is merciful. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG all had checkbooks with more red scribbled in them than your kid's first spelling test. But in swooped the government with a charitable bailout. Well, why should such generosity be limited to failing private companies? Here in the sports world, there are plenty of organizations, teams and athletes in need - believe me - and plenty could benefit from a similar government bailout.

WASHINGTON -- The government's senior auditor, Charles A. Bowsher, said yesterday that a new prediction of a savings and loan bailout costlier and longer than officially recognized suggests that the administration may be putting off its true costs until after the presidential election next year."

WASHINGTON -- While attacking Congress for delaying spending authority for the savings and loan bailout, the Bush administration has squirreled away more than $2 billion to keep the operation going.Most members of Congress, which approves appropriations for the Resolution Trust Corp., the agency that oversees the bailout of the savings industry, had assumed that the corporation ran out of money April 1.Administration officials have said on many occasions that the RTC was out of money, and they, as well as officials of the corporation, had not disclosed the existence of the fund for fear that news of it would reduce any sense of urgency that could impel congressional action.

I am genuinely puzzled by the bewilderment of people like Dan Rodricks who do not understand the anger of voters and the source of that anger ("At long last, it's time to cast our votes," Nov. 6). They are angry about the augmented intrusion of government into their lives at every level — national, state, municipal. It is an intrusion that, almost without exception, is expensive and ineffective in advancing any social or fiscal progress. It is not the bailout of Wall Street, the auto industry, and other TARP beneficiaries — although that bailout is an indicium.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has been losing money and a few days ago announced that the decline in the fund for the year may reach $3 billion. A good way to protect the FDIC, some observers have been suggesting, would be to reduce the amount of depositors' money that is protected.It's a good notion, if you're a banker. But what would it mean to depositors?* As a depositor, you would need to study your bank's balance sheets quarterly to determine (if you can) how secure it is.* You would have to follow changes in bank accounting rules -- and learn what the Federal Reserve Board is telling banks to write off.* Many of you would take your money out of the banks, cutting down on the nation's supply of capital.

Updated with comments from Harris and Bartlett. In a rare intra-delegation, across-the-aisle nudge, Sen.Barbara A. Mikulskion Tuesday called on the state's two Republican lawmakers in Washington to support a Senate version of an overhaul of theU.S. Postal Servicethat would save a pair of mail sorting facilities that just happen to be located in the lawmakers' districts. The move instantly put Republican Reps. Andy Harris and Roscoe Bartlett on defense, forcing them to either support the bipartisan Senate version of the postal legislation -- which is not popular with Republican House leaders -- or acknowledge that the Postal Service must be allowed to trim costs and close plants, even if the cuts are made in their own districts.

WASHINGTON -- The federal government is likely to lose as much as 40 cents on the dollar in selling its current crop of savings and loan assets, a Los Angeles Times investigation shows.The losses are expected to be far greater than they have been during the past two years and are likely to add tens of billions to the current $160 billion estimated price tag for the government bailout of the ailing thrift industry.A computer review of the records of the Resolution Trust Corp., which oversees the S&L rescue effort, shows a widening gap between the dollar value that the failed S&Ls had assigned to the mortgages, securities and properties that the government seized when it shut the institutions down and the amount of money that the government is apt to get back when these assets are sold.