History Of U.S. Bailouts

(based on the Associated Press article of September 21, 2008 published by IHT.com)

1932

The Hoover administration creates the Reconstruction Finance Corp. to facilitate economic activity by lending money in the Great Depression.

1933

The Roosevelt administration creates the Home Owners' Loan Corp. to buy $3 billion in bad mortgages from banks and refinance them to homeowners to stem a rise in foreclosures. The government makes a small profit.

1971

Congress saves Lockheed Aircraft Corp., the nation's biggest defense contractor, from bankruptcy by guaranteeing the repayment of $250 million in bank loans.

1979

Congress and the Carter administration arrange for $1.2 billion in subsidized loans to bail out automaker Chrysler Corp., then the nation's 10th-largest company. There ultimately was no significant cost to the government, since the loans were repaid.

1984

Congress effectively takes over the ailing Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust, which failed with $40 billion of assets. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. injects $4.5 billion to buy bad loans.

1989

Congress establishes the Resolution Trust Corp. to take over bad assets and make depositors whole. Resolving the S&L crisis takes six years and $125 billion in taxpayer money — roughly equal to $200 billion in today's dollars.

1998

The government brokers a $3.6 billion private bailout in the collapse of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund, although no government money is involved.

2001

Congress authorizes $5 billion in cash after the Sept. 11 terror attacks to help shore up the airline industry and follows up with $10 billion in loan guarantees.

2008: March 16

The Federal Reserve agrees to guarantee $29 billion of Bear Stearns' assets in connection with the government-sponsored sale of the investment bank to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

2008: July 11

Federal regulators seize IndyMac Bank's assets after the mortgage lender succumbs to the pressures of tighter credit, falling home prices and rising foreclosures. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says it will cost about $8.9 billion out of its $53 billion insurance fund.

2008: Sept. 7

The Treasury Department seizes teetering mortgage finance institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, temporarily putting them in a government conservatorship with plans to inject up to $100 billion into each.

2008: Sept. 16

The government announces an $85 billion emergency loan to rescue American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurance company, in return for a 79.9 percent stake in AIG.

2008: Sept. 19

The Bush administration announces a ($700 billion) plan to let the government buy hundreds of billions of dollars of bad mortgages and other forms of toxic debt that have been weighing down U.S. financial companies.