This piece scares me just a little.

Why did the Fed provide $180B to overseas banks? - BusinessWeek

Why did the Fed provide $180B to overseas banks?

Q. Why are the central banks and the Fed throwing so much money around?

A. The central banks are providing the short-term loans because the commercial banks are reluctant to lend to each other due to the ongoing credit crisis. In essence, banks worldwide are now borrowing from their central banks rather than from each other, said Adam Posen, deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C.

In the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the U.S. government's takeover of American International Group Inc., major banks in the U.S., Europe and Asia have scrambled to conserve their capital and are reluctant to provide the overnight loans to each other that are the lifeblood of the financial system.

Banks use overnight loans to clear transactions and maintain the level of reserves they're required to have by regulators.

Q. What is the Fed doing in the United States?

A. The Fed also is providing huge, short-term loans to U.S. banks to address the liquidity crisis. The New York Federal Reserve Bank provided $100 billion in overnight loans Thursday and $5 billion in 14-day loans. The Fed regularly makes short term loans but rarely on such a large scale.

Q. Will all of this work?

A. Economists generally believe that these measures are helping the banking system muddle through the current crunch.

Why did the Fed provide $180B to overseas banks? - BusinessWeek

So here we get a glimpse as to had bad our situation really is. When these types of actions become necessary, it is time to be concerned.

What really gets me, is how few people even ask where all of this money comes from.

Anyways, I sure hope I live long enough to see how this all plays out.

I hope you live long enough too.

I know it sound cliche but things are alway darkest before the dawn.

Many times I thought in my life that I was going into a very bad period and once it was over with I say to myself "That wasn't so bad".

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"We can't screw it up any worse than they have." - Barack Obama

Wanna bet?



"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste...." - Rahm Emmanuel