the $900 billion listed below is auctioned without congressional oversight, and it doesn't include the $500+ billion bailout of fannie/freddie/AIG/bear stearns, or the $700 billion bailout package...those ingrates will be begging the next president for another handout if we don't lock them up first



Fed to double cash auctions to banks, up to $900 billion
Bloomberg News
Published: October 6, 2008

WASHINGTON: The Federal Reserve said Monday that it would double its auctions of cash to banks to as much as $900 billion and is considering further steps to unfreeze short-term lending markets as the credit crunch deepens.

"The Federal Reserve stands ready to take additional measures as necessary to foster liquid money-market conditions," the central bank said in a statement. Fed and Treasury officials are "consulting with market participants on ways to provide additional support for term unsecured funding markets," the statement said.

The steps follow a hoarding of cash by banks that sent the premium on the three-month London interbank offered rate over the Fed's benchmark interest rate to a record. Industrial companies are also finding it harder to raise cash after the market for commercial paper shrank to a three-year low as investors flee even borrowers with few links to mortgages.

"It is pretty much all out war," said Christopher Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, New York. "They are pulling out all the stops to try and get borrowers and lenders to meet and do transactions once again."

Implementing part of last week's emergency legislation to shore up the financial industry, the Fed said that it would begin paying interest on the cash reserves banks hold at the central bank. The step should give Fed officials greater power to inject cash into banks without interfering with their benchmark interest rate, which stands at 2 percent.