Will ordinary citizens be able to invest their hard-earned shekels in Tim Geithner’s sweetheart deal to buy up toxic waste legacy assets from distressed banks? Here’s a quick followup:
Two of the country’s biggest money managers — Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co., known as Pimco, and New York-based BlackRock Inc. — say they may launch funds that would allow individuals to have a stake in some of the bad assets to be purchased from banks.
….Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer at Pimco, said his firm was looking into the idea of creating mutual funds that would tap into the program. BlackRock is doing the same, said Curtis Arledge, co-head of fixed income at the firm.
The story goes on to suggest that the funds may be closed-end with a minimum buy-in of $25,000. If that’s how it turns out, it wouldn’t exactly allow Joe Sixpack to get in on this deal. Still, it’s a step in the right direction. It’ll be interesting to see if Treasury encourages other retail funds get in on this action.
