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The FDIC’s Clever Accounting Trick
How will the FDIC replenish its coffers without Sheila Bair suffering the indignity of groveling in front of Tim Geithner? Clever accounting.The plan is for the FDIC to require banks to pre-pay three years of assessments. As with everything else in the economy (cash for clunkers, the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit), the idea is to pull it forward.The FDIC gets the cash now, the banks take a hit — but one that they can expense over three years, as Karl Dnninger points out — and voila, free money.