I doubt bailing that out is even possible
Some figures in perspective --- the US Government's latest budget is $3.5 Trillion. The US GDP is somewhere close to $14 Trillion.
The article states that we have $600 Trillion ( with a capital "T") worth of derivatives out there.
Bloomberg Reports that the number of hedge funds tripled in the last decade to a record of 10,233 at the end of June 2008, according to the Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc.
More than one-third of those funds could be "wiped out" in the economic downturn that began in December 2008.
What is 1/3 of $600 Trillion ? $200 Trillion !. That's More than 10 times the US economy. Anyone still talking about bailouts ?
The solution would be to let all of these guys go bankrupt and declare all these deals null and void. They're all akin to gambling.
>>I doubt bailing that out is even possible<<
That is the way I have felt about this whole mess for over three years. It is one of the reasons I bought my farm in central Kentucky. We could, if need be, be completely self sufficient there.