Bail Me Out

The system that Geithner put in place is one in which financial institutions, or anybody in theory, can come and buy up the so-called toxic assets that these big banks hold. Okay? You can come and buy them up. The US government is going to guarantee 90 percent of the losses you might incur by buying up these assets, and if the assets fail, if nobody can pay back their debts, the US government covers 90 percent of the losses. If those assets turned good, if you're holding the paper, if you're the creditor, you get 100 percent of the gains. So that's the deal: 100 percent of the gains go to the big Wall Street financiers; if there are losses, 90 percent are absorbed by the public.

Sounds good.