More on the Take-Over of Fannie and Freddie

Mohamed El-Erian, CO CEO and CO CIO at Pimco published a thoughtful OPED in the FT today and it is well worth a read. In my piece yesterday I likened what could have occurred to a tsunami, and he choose a hurricane, but we are saying basically the same thing. To be more specific he is calling what is happening a "deleveraging hurricane" and I could not agree more. He also points out that this is the third time we have had such a bold interventionist move occur on a Sunday. Clearly the folks in Washington were very worried about what might have happened on Monday without such action. What he thoughtfully points out is that the government balance sheet will not likely be enough but thier action will need to be supported by other capital inflows. He further calls for a 'holilstic response' from the authorities "including meaningful co-ordination of an often-diffused domestic policy apparatus and explicit, timely, and targeted international support." Good luck with that. All any of us can do is sit tight and pray that Mr. Paulson is bringing in the big brains to help him figure this all out.