A Black Wednesday on Credit Markets; 'Heaven Help Us All'

When government officials surveyed the flailing American financial system this week, they didn't see only a collapsed investment bank or the surrender of a giant insurance firm. They saw the circulatory system of the U.S. economy -- credit markets -- starting to fail.

 

Huddled in his office Wednesday with top advisers, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsonwatched his financial-data terminal with alarm as one market after another began go haywire. Investors were fleeing money-market mutual funds, long considered ultra-safe. The market froze for the short-term loans that banks rely on to fund their day-to-day business. Without such mechanisms, the economy would grind to a halt. Companies would be unable to fund their daily operations. Soon, consumers would panic.

 

For at least a month, Mr. Paulson and Treasury officials had discussed the option of jump-starting markets by having the government absorb the rotten assets -- mainly financial instruments tied to subprime mortgages -- at the heart of the crisis. The concept, dubbed Balance Sheet Relief, was seen at Treasury as a blunt instrument, something to be used in only the direst of circumstances.

 

One day later, Mr. Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sped to Congress to seek approval for the biggest government intervention in financial markets since the 1930s. In a private meeting with lawmakers, according to a person present, one asked what would happen if the bill failed.

 

"If it doesn't pass, then heaven help us all," responded Mr. Paulson, according to several people familiar with the matter.

 

Accounts of the events surrounding this week's unprecedented federal interventions are based on interviews with Bush administration and Congressional officials, as well as investors.

 

In the past two weeks, the relationship between government and the markets has been redefined. The Bush administration has become responsible for a major chunk of the U.S.housing market through its seizure of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It has entered the insurance business in a big way after taking control of American International Group Inc. Regulators allowed one investment bank to fail and helped usher another into a fast merger. And on Friday, Mr. Paulson announced plans for the largest intervention yet -- a federal plan to purge financial institutions of their bad assets, with a likely price tag of "hundreds of billions" of dollars.