banks

The Bush team, in its waning days, is hauling out the heaviest possible ammunition to force recalcitrant banks to lend. But the generals have no idea whether their battle plans will work.

People still pull out the plastic, but often they're not charging anything. That leaves banks scrambling to make up the revenue they've lost from their more-profitable credit cards.

The federal government is reviewing applications from hundreds of banks seeking rescue funding and is "actively" developing new programs to right the nation's unsettled financial system, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Monday.

Banks, automakers, now even my tot wants a bailout. Why stop? Here are more enterprises we could help while we're being silly.

Trying to rescue the banks or the automakers from the risks of capitalism is a doomed enterprise. That's because, as we're all suddenly learning, the market is a savage place.

After Thursday's market sell-off, we may get a bounce-back rally. But we won't get a sustained rally unless banks can sell portions of their loans to investors.

That business is largely dried up.

The government is pumping billions into the financial system under the government's $700 billion bailout plan, but it will take time before banks start lending, the Treasury official heading the effort said Monday.

The government has stepped in with nearly $125 billion to try and stabilize AIG. The nation's banks are tapping even more.

Now General Motors wants its own bailout.

A key market for lending to major businesses and banks expanded for the second week in a row but, aside from the Federal Reserve, few others are jumping on the lending bandwagon.

If the bailout made some banks uneasy at first, they got over it. Thousands of banks are lining up for the funds now.

Steve Henn reports the idea of using the money to buy other banks is a motivator.