Green Options

The failure of Lehman Brothers is seen as the last straw that broke the credit market. The financial markets have been in a state of complete disarray ever since the U.S. Government allowed Lehman Brothers to file for bankruptcy on September 15th 2008 instead of intervening to save it as it had done with Bear Sterns and later with the insurance company, American International Group.

A few details are starting to emerge about the proposed “bail out plan” of the US Government. While legislators wrestle with the finer details, here are a few figures to juggle with over the weekend.

So far, $200bn has been spent saving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with another $300bn to prop up the Federal Housing Administration.

On top of that, there’s with an additional $69bn to buy up the companies’ discount notes, $29bn to keep Bear Sterns alive and $85bn to keep AIG going. That’s another $183bn, taking the running total to $683bn.