So far so good
Who would have guessed we could count on Congress to do nothing ? Really, who guessed they had it in them ? If Congress ever get’s bribed, this day must have had more then the usual volume of offers. Desperate bankers willing to pay impressive amounts, Congressmen who are not up for reelection, and Dems and Reps in safe districts were very happy to spend money buying over valued mortgage securities.
If many more banks go under, the Fed workers should get a gold medal IMHO. Benni Hana could not have sliced and diced up so many banks, all so smoothly. Imagine if we didn’t have the Fed’s central bank servers moving the accounts so smoothly from one bank to it’s next buyer. Fortunately, the USA Fed central bank is one of the most audited, and professionally run non profit banking organizations to ever exist. FDIC losses are minuscule so far. Depositors have lost access to their funds for a day or so at most.
We should not confuse the lack of Congress oversight of the banking industry, that helped create this mortgage debt crisis, as a problem with the Fed.
The Fed and FDIC have been circling over the bleeding banks like sharks. Excellent job they are doing.
The regulators are closing banks before depositors lose money. :)The FDIC fund (that insures depositor $), is still flush.
I hope congress does nothing until after the elections. Even if there is a crisis, because all the money is controlled by the Fed, the banking functions of our society will not collapse. It is the central Fed bank that clears all checks, keeps all accounts etc. Because the Fed is a Chartered non profit central bank, it cannot collapse.
I think any fair observer must be impressed at how all these banking collapses and buy outs have generated so little confusion.
Now imagine if we had 150 separate banks, each with their own competing currency? 
Better yet don’t, why hurt your head needlessly. With a single dollar currency controlled by a non profit central bank, losing one bank, even a giant one, is like cutting the toe nails off a hydra. The system itself is secure. Data is stored by a non profit central bank on the worlds most redundant multi location server bank, audited constantly by hundreds of competing member banks of the Fed, as well as a bunch of Congressional and independent agencies. Our usual excellent electronic banking service shall continue, even as many of our banks don’t.
That is why there was no bank run today, as in the bad old days, when folks would get all worried about if "their bank ", had enough gold. The bad old days are gone , thanks to the Fed and it’s sound banking principles.
The health of the credit industry is an entirely different thing. If it needs a capital influx to maintain enough liquidity for normal commercial business, we should pull a Warren Buffet. Buy shares for the USA tax payer in audited, unquestionably profitable banks. As their former competitors go tits up, depositor cash will flow to the remaining banks. These banks can loan out these depositor-liability-dollars, because it will be backed with the new influx of capital from tax payer bought shares. This is easily doable.
I see this as potentially wildly profitable for the tax payer. Without the Congress buying over valued stuff from banks, those assets will collapse in value. Then newly cheap mortgage securities will be bought up dirt cheap by the remaining banks that are majority owned by tax payers. Inflation will cause these assets to appreciate so fast that in 10 years they may erase the USA gov’s debt.
OK, a semi pipe dream. Beats buying over valued securities to save well connected bankers a trillion dollars by trying unsuccessfully to have tax payers buy stuff from insolvent banks. That bailout is to expensive to the tax payer, and even worse, it won’t work. If the bankers don’t have enough, bad enough bad debts to sell now, they will quickly find more as soon as a Bush shill shows up to buy it. This is political hand outs on a grand scale to the insiders at the Bush treasury dept.
Trust me, I am not a banking expert. But if the plan is to give a trillion $ to lame duck Bush officials, to spend as fast as they can, like it’s a “crisis” , within a few months, the crisis will return, as the money disappears and the banks are still broke. 
The USA taxpayer should only invest into the banking industry as a sane, profit oriented person would. Injecting capital into the banking industry, by buying stock in audited, profitable, certified solvent banks , will maintain needed banking services. The tax payer should make a profit.
It is essential to maintain banking services. The best way to do that, is to have tax payers invest (if at all) , only in the soundest and most profitable banks. The other plan is basically just a politically based raid on the treasury to save a few well connected, poorly run banks.
