Bernanke mentioned it in his London speech this morning and Don Kohn is talking about it right now before Congress: the idea that the government buy up toxic assets to get them off the balance sheets of the banks. That was the initial objective of the TARP until the situation became so dire the government had to move quickly by injecting capital directly into banks.
$350 bln is up for grabs and Kohn is counseling that the lions-share should go for stabilizing the financial system rather than morphing the program to bailout mortgage holders and what ever constituency that has its hand out.
