The details of the PIPPICK have been widely disseminated and hashed out on our message boards and elsewhere, so I won’t bore you with them. Here’s the fact sheet- http://treasury.gov/press/releases/tg65.htm The real fact is that no one knows how these dual programs will work, or even if. There are some pretty big assumptions here, the main one being that buyers and sellers will be able to get together on price. What makes them think that the banks will be willing to recognize a market price on these things? Obviously the people behind this must know something. Just as obviously, they have proven that what they know is a lot less than what they need to know, or is the opposite. I think about the Fed’s MMILF program to lend money under similar circumstances for money market fund assets. That program began in November. There have been no takers. Click here to download complete report in pdf format (Professional Edition Subscribers). Try the Professional Edition risk free for thirty days. If, within that time, you don’t find the information useful, I will give you a full refund. It’s that simple. Click here for more information.
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What’s to stop these very same institutions that hold much of this crap from participating in the bidding in order to push up the price to the level it’s on their books for then with the govt financing it 97%, …. in the end it’s a swap for Treasuries. A covert way to stick it to the taxpayer.
Yep. Unfortunately, you are almost certainly correct. It’s a scam.
Paul Krugman and others in the mainstream have been critical. I think there could be another firestorm over this.