if you have to do it, do it right, man

Not that I am in favour of any of the bailout plans that US Congress has approved, unfortunately with the backing of many Republicans, John McCain being one of them.

But if you have to pump tax payers money in large quantities into a failing banking system, one at least expects the Treasury Department to make the process transparent and sound, with no chance for any chronyism of an old boys network. The direct investments that have been invested to far have been pretty much done by size of the recipient and at will and not according to what is best for the economy.

One idea to improve that is using reverse auctions with the Treasury buying so called "toxic assets" at the lowest possible price. After all, it's the taxpayers money. This is championed by Larry Ausubel and Peter Cramton of the University of Maryland and I wonder if this is not a better option than just putting tax-dollars into a black hole.