"We're going to have to hold out a W Band-Aid a little bit...and just be clear about some of the losses," Barack Obama said of America's sickly banks this week. As much as $2.5 trillion buys more than a little bit of sticking plaster, one would hope. That is the sum of fresh money that Tim Geithner, Mr Obama's treasury secretary (pictured below), hopes to channel into the financial system through his overhaul of the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (tarp), in large part by using public funds to coax private investment.rnAcross the world, there is agreement on the need for a more comprehensive response to the crisis. European ministers this week discussed setting up "bad banks" to buy illiquid assets. Mr Geithner, meanwhile, is keen to distance himself from the ad hoc approach of his predecessor, though his implicit swipes at Hank Paulson, with whom he worked closely on bail-outs, will strike some as unbecoming.
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