Joe Nocera thinks so.
Ms. Bair — who, thankfully, will remain the head of the F.D.I.C. in the new administration — has been thinking along the same lines. She, Mr. Bernanke and Treasury officials have begun talking about a new kind of bank, one that would be created and capitalized by the federal government, and whose sole purpose would be to buy up bad assets. Instead of ring-fencing bad assets one bank at a time, it would warehouse them in one place, much the same way the Resolution Trust Corporation did for real estate assets during the savings and loan crisis.
Read the rest of Nocera's piece here and the WSJ on Bailout Phase 2 here.
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