treasury presses with plan for toxic assets, page-4

Another extract:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iZKNwRyOoCx_vnwxKUC0bfIxE1EAD972S2V82

"Administration wants to buy up banks' toxic assets

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Struggling to contain the worst financial crisis in seven decades, the Obama administration wants to buy billions of dollars of toxic assets from banks to ease borrowing for consumers and businesses.

Some industry officials familiar with the details said Saturday they expected the approach would try to remove as much as $1 trillion from banks' books. An announcement from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner could come as early as Monday.

If banks are not burdened by the soured loans, then they would be in better shape to resume more normal lending."

What do they mean by "resume more normal lending"? Like dish out a few more sub-prime loans, give a few more bonuses, write a few more mortgage backed securities.

When was the last time the cure for a disease was administering a little more virus to the patient?