>> Uncle Sam taps piggy bank, borrows to aid market

WASHINGTON - Where does Uncle Sam come up with huge sums of money during a financial emergency? Like the rest of us, the government taps its reserves and borrows if it needs more.

The federal government has pledged eye-popping amounts — more than $600 billion in the past year — to bail out, or help bail out, some of the biggest names in American finance. The latest was American International Group Inc.

Now the credit crisis is starting to tax even the Federal Reserve's deep resources.

On Wednesday, the central bank took the unprecedented step of asking the Treasury Department to sell debt on behalf of the Fed. The first of those auctions raised $40 billion, and two more to raise an additional $60 billion are scheduled for Thursday.

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Source : Yahoo Finance