Many of us have been wondering where, exactly, is this $700,000,000,000 coming from. And the answer seems to be the issuance of more debt, and since US banks don't exactly have a surplus of cash to buy it all up, the assumption is that foreign countries will be buying. But what if this 'Field of Dreams' approach doesn't work?
From this morning's Washington Post...
Major overseas holders of cash, including foreign banks, are hoarding their money, declining to lend to each other, much less to distressed financial institutions in the United States.
Well, that's just "major overseas holders of cash". Surely some specific countries, say, some that have helped us out in the past are interested buyers, right?
The world's big sovereign wealth funds -- whether run by the oil-rich sheiks with well more than $1 trillion in Kuwait, Dubai and Abu Dhabi alone... have been missing from the scramble to rescue the American banks and investment houses.
Uh oh:
"It was thought that [foreign] money would come in, but people have gotten more jittery and have become concerned about the long-term fiscal implications of this crisis on the U.S. as well as the debate in Congress," said Simon Johnson, former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Well, what about our good friends in China? They can't seem to get enough of investing in our economy. They're ready to pony up a lot more money to help us out, right?
"Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have enough capital to solve their own problems independently," the state New China News Agency said regarding rumors of talks between the firms and Chinese funds.
Hmm. So, what happens if you throw an economic bailout party and no one comes? Well, I guess it's our party and we can cry if we want to. Excuse me while i call my stock broker and tell him to invest in Kleenex.