The word of the week and of the year for that matter is bailouts. First it was a big lumbering Bear, then it was a pair of faltering mortgage intermediaries, then it was a big old insurance company, and now it's bad debt ... all of it, or at least reportedly. CNBC
reported that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is considering the formation of a government entity that will take over banks' bad debt, reminiscent of the Resolution Trust Corp. set up during the savings and loan crisis. And based on the rumor -- that, by the way, was reported in The Washington Post earlier in the week -- the broader market recovered just over half of its loss so far for the week, jumping 410 points to close at 11,019.69.
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