Stress Tests For The Obama Bailout

摘要

Is Financial Rescue 2.0 better than the original? It was hard to believe following Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's vaguely worded unveiling on Feb. 10 of the newest bailout plan for the banks. Obama Administration officials had pledged to restore confidence with a more aggressive effort than the rescue hatched by Henry Paulson, Geithner's predecessor. Instead, investors disappointed by Geithner's lack of specifics sent stocks tumbling. "There's not enough there there," says Thomas Gallagher, head of policy research for institutional broker ISI Group.rnNow the market, which had hoped Treasury's new plan would directly buy up the banks' bad assets at inflated firices, must figure out whether Geithner's proposals will work as he fills in the details. Here are key ques -tions investors will be asking.