Fiscal Musical Chairs

Someday some poor saps are going to be pay for all the crappy loans made by BoA and others. The only question is:

Who is going to fall on fall on his ass when the music stops?

The country’s three biggest banks have reached agreement on the structure of a backup fund of at least $75 billion to help stabilize credit markets, a person involved in the discussions said yesterday, ending nearly two months of complicated negotiations against a worsening economic backdrop.

Officials from Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase reached agreement late Friday, settling on a more simplified structure than had been proposed, said this person, granted anonymity because he was not authorized to talk for the group…

Now, the proposed fund could begin operating by the end of December, this person said. The banks could begin asking roughly 60 financial institutions to contribute to the fund by Friday or early next week.

Duncan Black (aka Atrios) has translated for us:

It appears that Big Shitpile has succeeded in putting together a bunch of money they can use to buy their own assets at inflated prices so they can go on pretending that there are ponies in the pile.

On and on. Around and around the shrinking number of chairs we go.