"(a) Authority to Purchase.—The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States."

This, at first blush, would seem to indicate that only American firms would be covered. Nothing is further from the truth. If the Chinese wish to unload some of their purchased toxic sludge they merely sell it to, oh, Goldman Sachs for 40 cents on the dollar and then Goldman sells it to the Treasury for 50. This, under the black letter of the law here, is perfectly legal, which means that one must assume that Paulson will in fact foist off all the bad paper on world markets that was originally based on a mortgage in the United States, while allowing his banker buddies here to loot the taxpayer by acting as an intermediary in the transaction!

"(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;"

Contracts can (and presumably will) be "no bid, no solicitation" and given to whomever Secretary Paulson favors, without regard to the public interest or normal competitive bidding processes. Must be nice to be a "Friend of Hank."

"In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall take into consideration means for—

(1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and

(2) protecting the taxpayer."

Notice which comes first.

"(c) Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets.—The Secretary may, at any time, upon terms and conditions and at prices determined by the Secretary, sell, or enter into securities loans, repurchase transactions or other financial transactions in regard to, any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act."

Having bought these securities for any price Mr. Paulson would like (and he can compel institutions to sell at his demanded price as noted above!) he can then sell those assets at any price he wishes, to anyone he wishes. It certainly is nice to be a "Friend of Hank", and it most certainly sucks if you're not.

"The Secretarys authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time"

This is clever and nobody in the mainstream media has figured it out.

If you think the cost of this bill is $700 billion, you're wrong. The cost is actually infinite and the entire bill constitutes a giant money-laundering scheme.

Paulson can (and presumably will) buy up to $700 billion of these "assets", then sell them. Let's say he decides to buy them at 60 cents on the dollar and sell them for 10. You, the taxpayer, will eat the fifty cents, for an immediate cost of $350 billion dollars.

Having done so, he is then authorized to do so again, since the $700 billion is no longer on the government's balance sheet.

Basically what there saying is once again Us American citizens will continue to get the Greasy Shaft!

Were paying for failed business and corporations. Might as Well be Fair and have every Mom and Pop business that is failing be bailed out by Our Governemnet,After all that would be fair across the board.That way Every body gets to pay in and pay more. Hail America!

The simple truth in all of this is that the Federal Reserve (being neither "federal" nor "reserve") and their cronies have been orchestrating this financial situation for the last 85 years or so. Ever since the Federal Reserve and Federal Income Tax were created illegally in 1913 the stated goal of the power elite has been to bring the US under the control of the "New World Order" so all none of this should surprise us - it certainly doesn't me. In fact, I will not be the least bit surprised when the US government "bails-out" the big three auto makers then takes over the oil companies in the "best interest of the American people."

Wake up! WE ARE BARRELING TOWARDS STATE-OWNERSHIP OF INDUSTRY - i.e., COMMUNISM!

Interesting move. What I see at the moment is nothing more than a shell game on the part of government. To bail out another private firm will simply incur more taxpayer wrath with this move putting the burden of failure on the FDIC. The premise of using the discount window? Utter nonsense as if these entities were not in some kind of dire trouble, they could raise capital on their own. The discount window does require a pledge of assets, and in this case, the assets are quite dubious.
Obviously, the taxpayer is soon to get yet another bill as a bail out or FDIC intervention are all funded by the same source.
What is much more amazing is that nobody in government, including all the Congressional committees that are supposed to oversee the nations finances, have any idea of the total cost. Figures now range from 500 billion to the multi trillions. Amazing! Do you know what you can buy or build with a billion dollars? With a scant 110 billion one could build the imagined Bering Sea bridge - from the U.S. to Russia. For 700 Billion - the entire U.S. interstate system. For 500 billion - the cost of Medicare. For a mere few trillion we, the taxpayers, get to make certain that all of the executive leadership of everything that has, or will fail, get all of their bonus money, and golden parachute retirements. Even more we get to pay the salary of those that sit on capitol hill and get to pay their retirements also. Our system has evolved into a "reward for failure", albeit now on the backs of John Q.Public.

Wow, does Communism still exist? I thought it was extinct.

But I am glad to see that Mr. Lindblad & Mr. Odendin share my thought that Congress is being rushed into this bail-out with no conception of what is really involved. I am highly disturbed that Sec. Paulson seeks to avoid all review of his actions under the bail-out bill.

And I still think that "Al Coholic" was on to something over the weekend when he suggested a direct-to-the-distressed- homeowner plan.