dow futures down 88.5, page-26

$700 billion won't do much? Its about twice the combined value of write-downs banks have made to date. Multiply it by 10 and you get $7 trillion dollars which is the additional amount that banks ought to be able to lend if the $700 billion is added to their balance sheets. $7 trillion is half the value of ALL mortgages in the US - its a lot of money. I get the feeling they won't end up spending anywhere near that amount though.