Riek, I agree with you that these institutions going down the drain could possibly trigger something big (though I've read all sorts of differing opinions on what that means for the average punter) but where is this 1 trillion dollars going and what does it mean? If it's going to buy the failed mortgages (which might be what? 100 billion?) then what's the rest of the money for? If it's going to buy out some of the credit swaps, then which ones? Isn't there 63 trillion dollars exposed from the credit swaps? Which banks do we choose to save? If we're only going to save 5% of the banks, then is that really any different to saving 0% of the banks? Does 5% really increase confidence that much?

I mean, I don't know whether I'm asking the right questions cuz I don't really understand the entire situation, but 700billion or 1 trillion or whatever it is, seems entirely arbitrary to me, and if it's arbitrary, who is it helping and why is that particular recipient more worthy than another recipient?