Rescue Plan Seeks $700 Billion to Buy Bad Mortgages
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN 33 minutes ago The proposal would allow the Treasury to buy and resell mortgage debt as it sees fit, and would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion.

• Text of Draft Proposal
• Bush’s Radio Address: Text | Audio (mp3)

Bush: We Need $700 Billion For Bailout
Treasury Secretary: Financial Security Of All Americans Depends On Our Ability To Restore Our Financial Institutions... Largest Financial Bailout Since The Great Depression... Limit On National Debt To Go From $10.6 Trillion To $11.3 Trillion...
Quick Read

Bush Pledges to Quickly Pass Bailout Legislation Administration asking Congress to let government buy $700B in bad mortgages as part of the largest financial bailout since the Great Depression.

Lori Montgomery, David Cho, Binyamin Appelbaum | 11:29 a.m. ET

• Price Tag Brings Challenges | A Shifting Ideology
• Selling Plan to Congress | Japan, China Locked In
• SEC Bans Short Selling of Stocks | Investigations

Show Them the Door
Colbert I. King: A hard landing for all those high-flying financial types.
Editorial: Day of Reckoning
Outlook: Aftershocks

• Peter R. Fisher: Where Did All That Capital Go?
• Robert H. Dugger: Nostalgia for the S&L Crisis

Greg Zehner: Atlas Shrugged: A Reaction to the Paulson Plan (From A Former Goldman Partner)
What this really signals is the beginning of the end of the United States as the financial capital of the world. Should you worry? Yes.

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That Humongous Wall Street Bailout You Just Bought
Henry Blodget, 09.19.2008

What are the costs? Almost certainly: higher taxes, higher interest rates on government debt, bigger government deficits. When the alternative is the entire financial system going bankrupt, these costs are acceptable.

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The Mind-Boggling Trillion Dollar Bailout: A Q&A With Finance Writer Max Wolff
Zack Exley, 09.19.2008

"We just went from Free Fall to Free Lunch. It turns out free markets are the greatest system on earth, but only when they go up. Market discipline is for low-income people and homeowners."

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The Fiscal Meltdown Reveals the Democratic Deficit
Benjamin R. Barber, 09.19.2008

In response to this financial crisis, consumers must become citizens again, reclaiming their democratic right to fiscal transparency, political oversight and market regulation.

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$700 Billion Is Sought for Wall Street in Vast Bailout
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN The Bush administration is requesting virtually unfettered authority for the Treasury to buy mortgage-related assets.

• Text of Plan | Bailout Q. & A.

A Professor and a Banker Bury Old Dogma on Markets
By PETER BAKER The Fed chairman and the Treasury secretary have cast aside long-held views about regulation and government involvement in private business.

• CNBC Video: Paulson’s Evolving Statements

News Analysis
But Will It Work?
By PETER S. GOODMAN Some are skeptical of the Treasury plan, despite wide agreement on the need for a broad intervention.

Lost and Saved: Why Merrill was rescued but Lehman was left on its own.