New Plan for Bad Banks

$700 billion later, banks still aren't lending and their share prices have dropped to dangerous levels lately. How much more will it take to turn the corner? The Obama team is working to calculate just that, preparing a comprehensive strategy to get banks on track that they plan on releasing in several weeks. Policy choices include injecting more cash into financial institutions, creating a "bad bank" to take on their toxic assets, and even nationalizing or breaking up some banks. "We're at the beginning of this process of repairing the system, not close to the end of that process," Obama's Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner told Congress recently. "And it is going to require much more substantial action on a very dramatic scale."