We absolutely must move credit default swaps to a regulated exchange, no matter how much investment banks and hedge funds scream. Must be done. Do it now. Real rules about writing mortgages, although now that losses are in the hundreds of billions, underwriting rules are already becoming quite restrictive.
[i]It is going to cost the taxpayers a lot of money. While I think the losses on AIG will be rather minor in the grand scheme of things, if you add up Fannie and Freddie and a new RTC, coupled with the stimulus package, you can easily get to $500 billion, and that is probably a low number.[/i]
That is, this will cost about half of [i]all[/i] the individual Income Tax revenue for a year.
When you look at the deductions on your paycheck, think about everything that went to the IRS from January to June going to bail out bad financial managers, and ask if it’s worth it to [i]you[/i].