$700,000,000,000

Seven hundred billion dollars. That's 2300 dollars per person in the United States. If they want Rico to pay his part, fine. Just don't take it all out at once...

The White House and congressional leaders agreed on a deal to authorize the biggest banking rescue in U.S. history. The $700 billion program would effectively nationalize an array of mortgages and securities backed by them, instruments whose deteriorating value has clogged the nation's financial system. Lawmakers finished writing the bill late Sunday, after which Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared it "frozen," meaning no changes would be made. The bill leaves many mechanics of the operation up to the Treasury. Among these are the crucial issues of how the U.S. government would decide which assets it will buy and how it would decide what to pay for them. The legislation leaves the Treasury 45 days to issue guidelines on those procedures. The bill awaits votes in Congress starting on Monday.
The deal came after tension-filled weekend negotiations, where the specter of a faltering economy collided with the politics of a presidential election to create one of the biggest congressional dramas of recent years. Saturday included a high-decibel exchange between Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and congressional Democrats, a ban on handheld email devices to forestall news leaks, and a battery of lobbying calls from the president and the presidential candidates.
At the bill's core is Mr. Paulson's concept of buying impaired mortgage-related assets from financial firms -- giving them cash to replace the toxic debts that have put them in danger or dissuaded them from lending. The plan is to help the firms restore their capital bases as well as the trust that enables them to borrow and lend at reasonable terms. Without this, officials worry that the credit markets, the lifeblood of the economy, would grind to a halt.
Sellers of assets could include a broad range of financial entities -- not just banks but also credit unions and pension funds. The assets offered to the government must have been originated or issued on or before 14 March 2008.
The Treasury wouldn't get the entire $700 billion for purchasing such assets upfront. Just $350 billion would be immediately available. But the other $350 billion would be available unless Congress specifically holds it back.
Mr. Paulson doesn't expect the funds to unclog the financial situation immediately. "I'm hoping that, in a very fragile system, this restores some confidence when it's announced. But it will take several weeks" before the asset purchases begin to work, he said.
The plan would impose some curbs on executive compensation at firms that sell assets to the government. These include a ban, for those that sell a large amount of securities to the U.S., on creating new "golden parachute" payments to departing top executives. Companies also would have to have provisions to "claw back" past bonuses found to have been based on misleading financial statements.
The Treasury would receive warrants giving it the right to acquire nonvoting common stock or preferred stock in firms benefiting from the bailout. The program would be subject to oversight that includes a bipartisan committee and the Government Accountability Office. The GAO would have an office located within the Treasury Department.
The agreement came together only after concessions on all sides. Democrats backed down from a proposal to let bankruptcy judges alter the terms of mortgages, and from another that would have steered government profits from the package to affordable-housing programs. The Bush administration, for its part, agreed to much broader executive-compensation limits than it originally envisioned, among other things.
At a pivotal point Saturday afternoon, Mr. Paulson met with lawmakers and argued over whether the funds would come in one tranche or in installments. "Damn it, if you think you need $700 billion right away you better tell us," Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York told the Treasury secretary, according to two people familiar with the matter. "I'm doing this for you as much as for me," Mr. Paulson shot back. "If we don't do this, it's coming down on all our heads."
Mr. Paulson objected to language that would give a new oversight board power to control how the new program would be run. "All we're talking about is having Groucho, Harpo, and Chico watching over Zeppo," said Representative Barney Frank.

Rico says it's the perfect analogy: the Marx Brothers running Lehman Brothers...