Lawmakers Agree on `Principles' of Rescue Deal

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Congressional negotiators said they reached a bipartisan agreement on a ``set of principles'' for a $700 billion financial-rescue package to inject fresh capital into the paralyzed credit markets.

Lawmakers agreed that legislation should include provisions on oversight of the Treasury-run program, limits on executive pay and a section on homeownership preservation, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said.

Still unresolved is whether the bill will include a provision allowing bankruptcy judges to change mortgage terms. The Treasury would have $250 billion available immediately, said a Senate aide, who requested anonymity.

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Frank said a Democratic provision to let judges rewrite mortgage terms for homeowners in bankruptcy proceedings is the ``most controversial'' and remains an ``outstanding issue.''

``We pushed very strongly for it,'' Frank said. ``We haven't resolved it yet.''

``Bankruptcy is the one issue where our Republican colleagues told us they thought that would blow up the whole thing,'' Frank told reporters. ``So it hasn't been finally resolved, but that's on the table.''

That's still a rather major disagreement...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes