Pimco's El-Erian: A Good Government Move
The government has gone from a piece meal approach to the ongoing credit crisis to a comprehensive plan, and that's a very good thing, according to Mohamed El-Erian, co-CEO of bond giant Pimco.
Late Thursday the government started surfacing plans to address the "illiquid assets" on U.S. financial institutions' balance sheets, possibly including the creation of a government facility to take on financial firms' bad debts. (Read about the proposal here)
The bond guru said markets should take heart from such a move. Besides taking on a more comprehensive approach, it also shows a more global approach to the problem and changes the political tone surrounding the problem.
"You're hearing 'enough is enough, we need to do something' and that has a lot to do with what's happened in the money market segment over the last 48 hours," El-Erian said on CNBC early Friday.
He cautioned that implementing the plans "is not going to be pretty, there's going to be lots of critics, but the alternative would have been much worse."
