Plan’s Basic Mystery - What’s All This Stuff Worth? - NYTimes

Description

What would you pay, sight unseen, for a house that nobody wants, on a hard-luck street where no houses are selling?

That question is easy compared to the one confronting the Treasury Department as Washington works toward a vast bailout of financial institutions. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. is proposing to spend up to $700 billion to buy troubled investments that even Wall Street is struggling to put a price on.

A big concern in Washington — and among many ordinary Americans — is that the difficulty in valuing these assets could result in the government’s buying them for more than they will ever be worth, a step that would benefit financial institutions at taxpayers’ expense.

Original URL

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/business/25value.html?hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/business/25value.html?hp