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[bullshort]

The Resolution Trust Company (I always thought that name was so bizarre) was created by Congress in 1989 to manage the disposal of megabillions in real estate and bad loans by hundreds of failed Savings and Loans. Wikipedia says this about it:

"According to Joseph E. Stiglitz in his book, Towards a New Paradigm in Monetary Economics, page 243, the real reason behind the need of this company was to allow the United States government to subsidize the banking sector in a way that wasn't very transparent and therefore avoid the possible resistance. This is supported by the fact that the banks had better information related to the loans than the RTC."

So if that's where we're headed with this subprime debacle, here's a sad (and humorous) article on what we might expect:

http://findarticles....v25/ai_13323020

PS - some would argue that the subprime fiasco is different than the S&L bailout because it's not the banks that are in trouble, but the hedgefunds. As always, comments by those who are familiar with these things are much appreciated.