Bailout Explained

The BLS Library has acquired for its collection a new book published by CCH Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-343) as Signed by the President on October 3, 2008: Law, Explanation, and Analysis (Call # KF6276.62008 .A2 2008b). This item provides the complete text of added, amended, or repealed Code sections with controlling committee reports and CCH's explanation and analysis of tax provisions contained in the legislation. It also provides practical guidance of the impact of the law's changes, including how various taxpayer groups and situations are affected as well as sample client letters explaining the changes made by the law.


For a historical perspective on the bailout, see the post on Law Librarian Blog which links to a chronology of federal government bailouts since 1970 which ProPublic put together. The post traces a number of landmark bailouts including the 1970 Penn Railroad bailout and those involving Lockheed in 1971, Franklin National Bank in 1974, New York City in 1975, Chrysler in 1980, the Savings & Loan bailout of 1989 and the airline industry bailout of 2001. Of interest is how the Treasury did in the end after initial government outlays in each of these interventions. When the current credit crisis occurred in September 2008, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled Government Bailouts: A U.S. Tradition Dating to Hamilton with additional historical perspective on federal interventions showing that “in a panic or threatened financial collapse, governments intervene -- every government, every party, every country, every time."