Fed bets $800 billion on consumers

Click Here To Download
http://www.file-share.cc/7ev9rsi1jgh1.html

The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department on Tuesday unveiled a plan to pump $800 billion into the struggling U.S. economy in an attempt to jumpstart lending by banks to consumers and small businesses.

The government hopes that these initiatives will enable more money to flow to consumers in the form of loans than has occurred so far in previous bailout plans.
One program will make $200 billion available from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to holders of securities backed by consumer debt, such as credit cards, car loans and student loans.

The Treasury Department will allocate $20 billion to back that lending in order to cover any losses that the New York Fed might suffer.

In addition, the Federal Reserve, announced it will purchase up to $500 billion in mortgage backed securities that have been backed by Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500), Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500) and Ginnie Mae, the three government-sponsored mortgage finance firms set up to promote home ownership. It will also buy another $100 billion in direct debt issued by those firms.

Together, the programs from the Federal Reserve and the New York Fed are more than Congress approved in October for a bailout of the nation’s banks and Wall Street firms. The Fed said the money will come from an increase in its reserves — in essence, it is creating new money.

The idea is that by making money available for investors who are interested in buying loans bundled together into securities, it will be easier and more profitable for banks to loan money to consumers and small businesses.

Before the current credit crisis, lenders got the money they needed to extend credit by selling the loans they had already made. But the Treasury Department said the issuance of those securities essentially came to a halt in October.