Paulson and his congressional backers have made sure that the bailout still applies to foreign firms too.
I heard one congressman on FOX this morning estimate that Paulson’s approachh will mean that up to one half of the bailout money ends up in the pockets of foreigners.
There is no reason to think that this is anything more than a scam to save the fortunes of Paulson and his circle of investors on the back of American taxpayers.
The most cost-effective bailout would be to start prosecuting people for fraud and throwing them in prison. That would do much more to inspire confidence in the markets than anything else the government could do.