This morning the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced they were considering extending the guarantee program for certain types of corporate debt, dubbed the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, into next year. Some will cry that our taxpayer money is at risk again when the government should be pulling in its intervention horns. However the article also had this quote:
"The FDIC collected more than $9 billion in fees from the program. Some of this money will be used to cover resolution costs associated with bank failures, the regulator said Wednesday."
As some suspected, including me, the government's investments and risk taking are beginning to pay off for taxpayers, if only in a small way so far (if you can call $8 billion "small"). Only time will tell what the real net cost of all the government programs will be when they're done closing banks, but it seems pretty certain that it will be less than the worst case scenario painted by some commentators. Yet some investment opportunities are still priced at worst case levels.
Is it time for you to consider taking a bit more risk with your investments?
