Home Precious Metals
Options

Proposal to Congress from US T

c/p via WSJ

Treasury’s Financial-Bailout Proposal to Congress
The following is the legislative proposal from Treasury Department for authority to buy mortgage-related assets:

Section 1. Short Title.

This Act may be cited as ____________________.

Sec. 2. Purchases of Mortgage-Related Assets.

(a) Authority to Purchase.–The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States.

(b) Necessary Actions.–The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:

(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;

(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;

(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;

(4) establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase mortgage-related assets and issue obligations; and

(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities of this Act.

Sec. 3. Considerations.

In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall take into consideration means for–

(1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and

(2) protecting the taxpayer.

Sec. 4. Reports to Congress.

Within three months of the first exercise of the authority granted in section 2(a), and semiannually thereafter, the Secretary shall report to the Committees on the Budget, Financial Services, and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committees on the Budget, Finance, and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate with respect to the authorities exercised under this Act and the considerations required by section 3.

Sec. 5. Rights; Management; Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets.

(a) Exercise of Rights.–The Secretary may, at any time, exercise any rights received in connection with mortgage-related assets purchased under this Act.

(b) Management of Mortgage-Related Assets.–The Secretary shall have authority to manage mortgage-related assets purchased under this Act, including revenues and portfolio risks therefrom.

(c) Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets.–The Secretary may, at any time, upon terms and conditions and at prices determined by the Secretary, sell, or enter into securities loans, repurchase transactions or other financial transactions in regard to, any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act.

(d) Application of Sunset to Mortgage-Related Assets.–The authority of the Secretary to hold any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act before the termination date in section 9, or to purchase or fund the purchase of a mortgage-related asset under a commitment entered into before the termination date in section 9, is not subject to the provisions of section 9.

Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.

The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time

Sec. 7. Funding.

For the purpose of the authorities granted in this Act, and for the costs of administering those authorities, the Secretary may use the proceeds of the sale of any securities issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, and the purposes for which securities may be issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, are extended to include actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses. Any funds expended for actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses, shall be deemed appropriated at the time of such expenditure.

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Sec. 9. Termination of Authority.

The authorities under this Act, with the exception of authorities granted in sections 2(b)(5), 5 and 7, shall terminate two years from the date of enactment of this Act.

Sec. 10. Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt.

Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting in lieu thereof $11,315,000,000,000.

Sec. 11. Credit Reform.

The costs of purchases of mortgage-related assets made under section 2(a) of this Act shall be determined as provided under the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, as applicable.

Sec. 12. Definitions.

For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) Mortgage-Related Assets.–The term “mortgage-related assets” means residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before September 17, 2008.

(2) Secretary.–The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Treasury.

(3) United States.–The term “United States” means the States, territories, and possessions of the United States and the District of Columbia.

-------------------------------------------------


Comments

  • Options
    Just out of curiousity, what are the Forum's thoughts on REIT's with this new legislation? I road them for the last several years until I divested most of my stock holdings early this year. They have taken a hit lately, of course, but this may be a good time to get back into them, if the bad parts will just be transferred to the public dole (sp?). As long as the government is doing this and there is nothing we can do about it, we may as well plan accordingly for ourselves, so what say ye?

    I still think PM's are a good long term vehicle as a hedge, FWIW, and to keep it PM related. image
    imageQuid pro quo. Yes or no?
  • Options
    57loaded57loaded Posts: 4,967 ✭✭✭
    yes to your first question
    and a #3 lead sinker to PM tomorrow, maybe over $125 and close to $700
  • Options
    renman95renman95 Posts: 7,037 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Section 3 (2) is a hoot....isn't it(?)

    Ren
  • Options
    BearBear Posts: 18,954 ✭✭
    Well at least they are not going

    to kill the poor tax payer.

    They need us as indentured slaves.image
    There once was a place called
    Camelotimage
  • Options
    While they are at it, this would be a good time to fire up the printing press and fix Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid too.

    image
    imageQuid pro quo. Yes or no?
  • Options
    BearBear Posts: 18,954 ✭✭
    Whats the matter with you.

    The first priority of our Government,

    is to take care of the fat cat contributors.

    To heck with the people , Soc Sec

    and Medicare. Only when you contribute

    1,000,000 dollars to a politician, will your

    needs be heard. We have the best Government

    that money can buy.image
    There once was a place called
    Camelotimage
  • Options
    roadrunnerroadrunner Posts: 28,303 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The taxpayer has already "been considered." And there will be no further help. On to the next step.

    Interesting that it will take $700 BILL for starters (plus what has already been spent) to bail out mortgages. This would imply a basic 5-10% failure rate. That same failure rate applied to even riskier otc credit default swaps and interest rate swaps is a potentially humongous number. It's not so much how poor the securities are, but more a function of how many parties are linked together to the same swill. When one falls, the next one falls, etc., etc.

    roadrunner
    Barbarous Relic No More, LSCC -GoldSeek--shadow stats--SafeHaven--321gold
  • Options

    This $ trillion bail out will buy us 3 to 6 months at best. The US GNP is almost a $ trillion a month now. There is at least $10 trillion in monopoly money out there that can't be accounted for and must be paid for somehow.

    We need to realize the system is broken and in need of structural repair. Massive gov't intervention won't fix what got us here. Massive regulation in 2009 might be a start. This trainwreck will take years to repair if it can be done at all.

    We can pull through this but it will be a long, tough road for whomever is around in '09 to deal with it. The party's over and the Wall Street gains of last Thursday/Friday were a joke. The DOW will settle under 10,000 before this thing can begin to turn around.

    Don't let go of your PM just yet!
  • Options
    57loaded57loaded Posts: 4,967 ✭✭✭


    << <i>The taxpayer has already "been considered." And there will be no further help. On to the next step.

    Interesting that it will take $700 BILL for starters (plus what has already been spent) to bail out mortgages. This would imply a basic 5-10% failure rate. That same failure rate applied to even riskier otc credit default swaps and interest rate swaps is a potentially humongous number. It's not so much how poor the securities are, but more a function of how many parties are linked together to the same swill. When one falls, the next one falls, etc., etc.

    roadrunner >>



    the 700 billion is the most they can "do" at ONE time...so it implies no limit to how many times

    and also look at section 8 EIGHT, that is section eight, folks
Sign In or Register to comment.