The figure $600b was raised by a correspondent of Jerome a Paris that he quoted (but whom probably did not want to be quoted by name), so I don't know how firm it is ... but it sure as heck would make sense of the $700b figure.

Dodd's plan is, go ahead and hide up the mess you have made of the Fed's balance sheet in a series of band-aids to cover an expanding infection, but shareholders in the short term and executives who do not get out in time in the long term shoulder some of the cost of the bail out of Paulson's and Bernanke's incompetence.

I'm not a legislative lawyer, but reading it just now, I got the impression that Dodd's plan allows executives to get out while the getting's good, in that Treasury does not own any shares until the corresponding asset is diposed of or matures, therefore revealing the "true" value, and that the exercise of restraint on executive salaries happens once the Treasury owns shares ... perhaps if Treasury owns a controlling interest.

All of this is why the US needs a growth industry in the productive sector of the economy, since otherwise there's no way for the finance sector to muddle through as it downsizes. As you know, I propose a New Energy Economy crash program to jump start that growth industry.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.