You gotta love toxic assets. After the government took on $70 billion in bad assets from AIG and Bear Stearns in the wake of their collective crap-outs, there’s been a lot of confusion as to what those assets were. Well, the feds own loans for hotels worldwide, the Miami airport and Chicago’s Civic Opera House. But after the owners of this mall couldn’t make their payments, the government took over the mall. Which is kinda hilarious. source
“We simply – we simply need them.” Christina Romer, an economic adviser for Obama, chatted with “Fox News Sunday” about the nature of “toxic,” i.e. uncertain, assets. Private investors are doing the administration a favor, she says, by not forcing the government to carry all of the weight of the toxic assets. Good for them. We’ll buy those investors a beer (probably a PBR; times are tough) next time we see them in our local dive bar. source