assets

Spain's government insisted Friday that a 30 billion euros ($41 billion) fund it will use to buy assets from banks starved for liquidity will have zero cost for taxpayers.

The insurer Aegon NV said Thursday it will book 420 million euros ($573 million) in charges on bad bonds and other credit assets in the third quarter.

“Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now, this week.

I do not believe that you should risk those assets in the stock market right now.”

The Treasury has barely a month to create one of the world’s largest asset management firms and put a dollar value on assets that no one wants.

Weighed down by a huge portfolio of troubled mortgage loans, the nation’s fourth-largest bank by assets entered into preliminary deal talks with Citigroup.

Commodities prices turned mostly lower Tuesday as the dollar clawed higher against other currencies, prompting investors to unload hard assets bought as a hedge against inflation.

Oil prices spiked as anxiety over the proposed bailout of the financial system battered the dollar and sent investors scrambling for safe-haven assets.

Here is what some newspapers had to say about the Bush administration's move to ask Congress for $700 billion to buy up troubled mortgage-related assets from U.S. financial institutions:

Regulators close down Ameribank Inc., a West Virginia-based-bank with total assets of $115 million.

The Bush administration is requesting virtually unfettered authority for the Treasury to buy up to mortgage-related assets.