Treasury Department extends toxic assets program deadline – Washington Business Journal:

Department officials said they extended the deadline based on feedbacl frompotential applicants. They also encouragesd small private asset managerd to partner with other fund managersx so they could meet the size criteria for the a minimumof $10 billion in eligible assets under management and a demonstrated capacith to raise at least $500 million in privatw capital. After the initial five or so fund managers are the department may open the program to smallerdfund managers. The fund managers selected for the progra will raise capital from private investorsd and receive matching equity funds and debt financiny from theTreasury Department.
These public-private investmenr funds will buycommercial mortgage-backed securities and residential mortgage-backed securitiesa from financial institutions. The goals of the program are to restarf the market forthe securities, free up the balance sheets of financial institutions and enable them to make new loans. Establishingg a price for those assets also could provide a clearer picture of the financial condition of the institutionz nowholding them, which might help them raise capital from the private Two-thirds of economics bloggers surveyed by the Kauffmajn Foundation think fixing banks should be Presideny Barack Obama’s top economic priority.
Stimulating demandd and promoting entrepreneurship also are consideredtop priorities. The survehy was conducted in connection with a conferenced of economic bloggers hosted by Kauffman at its headquartersd inKansas City, Mo. Economics bloggers cited innovation, economic growtuh and job creation as the most important contributords to the health ofthe U.S. economy. Labor manufacturing and big business were the leasyt important of the nine items About 60 percent of the bloggerds think a continued credit freeze woulf cause a major slowdownin innovation. Fear of losinv benefits like health insurance ranked asthe No.
1 impediment to starting a business, followed by the risk of losintg money and thepaperwork burdens. Enablingv Americans to keep their existing health benefits would encourage more people to start theirown businesses, the bloggers Lower and simpler taxezs are viewed as more helpful than providing targeted tax breakse for entrepreneurs. Tort refork and better business training was low onthe list. Econom y by the numbers: Job bankruptcy up The U.S. economyu lost 663,000 jobs in bringing the total loss since the recessiohn began in December 2007 to more than 5millionn jobs.
Two-thirds of those jobs have been lost in the past five according to the Bureau of Labor The unemployment rate jumpedto 8.5 perceny in March, up from 8.1 percent in Meanwhile, consumer bankruptcies were up 41 percentg in March compared with the same montu a year ago, according to the American Bankruptcyt Institute. More than 121,000 consumer bankruptcies were filedlast month, up 24 percenr from February, according to ABI’s analysis of data from the Nationa l Bankruptcy Research Center. ABI predicts 1.4 million consumer bankruptcies will be filedthis year. The American Bankeras Association reported that delinquenciee rose in almost every loan category in the fourtj quarterof 2008.

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