(CNN) -- The U.S. Treasury Department will begin selling bonds Wednesday to help the Federal Reserve, which has had to loan out an unprecedented amount of money to businesses because of the credit crisis. CNN's Ali Velshi says the Fed needs access to large amounts of cash to keep Wall Street confident. The Fed announced Tuesday it would authorize the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to lend up to $85 billion over two years to insurance giant American International Group. In return, the government will receive a 79.9 percent stake in the company, which has 74 million clients in 130 countries.
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U.S. Treasury to hold its first bond auction Wednesday, for $40 billion
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CNN's Ali Velshi says the Fed needs more money to keep Wall Street confident
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AIG has so many "tentacles," allowing it to go under could've been catastrophic
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High interest on $85B loan, government stake in AIG could bode well for taxpayers
The @placeholder bills will mature in 35 days, allowing the Fed access to quick cash.
And just the idea that the Fed could run out of that money causes @placeholder to panic because it says, "If four more banks were to fail, the Fed wouldn't have money to bail them out, so we're in a bad situation."