THE WAVE ENTERTAINMENT ISSUE 15: THE YEAR END ISSUE | Page 16

Top 6 U.S. Government Financial Bailouts
By Marc Davis AAA

The passage into U.S. law on October 3, 2008, of the $700 billion
financial-sector rescue plan is the latest in the long history of U.S.
government bailouts that go back to the Panic of 1792, when the federal
government bailed out the 13 United States, which were over-burdened
by their debt from the Revolutionary War. It also marked the fourth time
in 2008 that the government interceded to prevent the ruin of a private
enterprise or the entire financial sector. In addition to the $700 billion
bailout, this article will look at five financial crunches in the past century
that necessitated government intervention:
The Great Depression
The savings and loan bailout of 1989 The collapse of Bear Stearns, an
investment bank and brokerage firm American International Group
(AIG), an insurance colossus with global reach Freddie Mac and Fannie
Mae, two government-backed mortgage lenders Bank Rescue of 2008
Officially called the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, this
bailout bill surpassed any previous government bailout by hundreds
of billions of dollars. The principal mandate of the legislation was to
authorize the U.S. Treasury to buy risky and nonperforming debt from
various lending institutions. These debts would include:
mortgages
auto loans
college loans
an ambiguous "other" in the bill, which allows for broad interpretation
Part of H