Reviewing the stream of restructuring announcements emanating from the US, you might almost think the country’s insolvency regime has been supplemented by a seemingly omnipresent Federal Reserve.
The Fed’s direct interventions have been few: it helped rescue Bear Stearns, took over Indy Mac, and is close to the situation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the struggling mortgage groups bailed out by the US last week. But it also opened the borrowing spigots for the troubled US investment banks. In the past 12 months, the Fed has been more active in word, plan and deed in restructuring situations than for many a year.
