Officially titled the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,” the plan to rescue the financial system of the US has ballooned from 3 pages to 110 (pdf). Others with more time (and experience) than I have looked at it in more detail (see this NY Times article, for example), concluding that this bill is needed now and in its current form, this is about the best we can get.
My biggest concern is that $700 billion may be the tip of the iceberg and that we may very well find ourselves on the hook for much, much more. Once we go down this path (Iraq, anyone?) there is no turning back.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Somebody’s going to have to explain this to me. How do you buy insurance on distressed assets? If they’re already distressed, isn’t that like trying to buy an insurance policy on your house after it’s burned down?
Not quite. In your example, the insurance pays for the damage to the house, whether major or minor. A better example might be trying to buy life insurance when one has cancer.