TALF off to an extremely disappointing start....

[bsnyder]

That's the government program that's suppose to save our financial system. But after the public lynching that AIG's Edward Liddy received this week, who can blame investors for steering clear of doing business with our craven political class and avoid the potential future wrath of a nation that has been whipped into a populist frenzy.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The debut of the Federal Reserve's long-awaited program to resuscitate consumer and small business lending got off to a stuttering start on Thursday, as investors largely stayed away.

Big investors applied for only $4.7 billion in loans in the first round of the Fed's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, known as TALF. That's far below the up to $200 billion the U.S. central bank had pledged to lend.