US Zeroes In on Sweeping Rescue Plan

The nation's top finance officials briefed members of Congress tonight on an unprecedented plan in the works to keep troubled institutions afloat, the Wall Street Journal reports. Treasury chief Henry Paulson and Fed chief Ben Bernanke said they would work through the weekend to get something to lawmakers for a vote next week. The centerpiece reportedly remains a mechanism to buy bad loans from banks.

Another feature under consideration is the creation of federal insurance for investors in money-market funds, similar to the protection given to people with regular bank accounts. The cost of the rescue plan, seen as the most intensive government intervention in the markets since the 1930s, could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
(More Henry Paulson stories.)