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BAILOUT BLUES
Like a house of cards in a light breeze, financial institutions began to fall apart in the fall of 2008, blown apart by bad mortgages and bank failures. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed a sweeping $700 billion bailout - called the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- to buy up mortgage-backed securities. With hat in hand, Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke traveled back and forth between the White House and Capitol Hill attempting to sell their unpopular idea to a skeptical Congress. With many Republicans refusing to get behind the plan, it failed to pass in the House of Representatives. The markets plummeted and investor confidence continued to dry up. Days later, a slightly different version of the TARP passed both houses of Congress and was quickly signed by President George W. Bush.
