No kidding

In short, Paulson's plan was one part robbery (with the banks doing the robbing) and one part accounting sleight of hand. No wonder House members rejected it.
If Paulson or congressional leaders devise a Plan B, they should look to the example of Fortis, Belgium's biggest financial-services company. This week, the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg invested 11.2 billion euros ($16.3 billion) in Fortis. In exchange, they got ownership of almost half its banking business.
That's how a government intervention is supposed to work. The company gets fresh capital, which has the added benefit of not being fake. The buyers get equity. Legacy shareholders get slammed with dilution. And if the company recovers, the government can sell shares to the public later, maybe even at a profit.
Such simplicity might feel unnatural to someone like Paulson, who used to run Goldman Sachs Group Inc., or a congressman such as Barney Frank who depends on campaign checks from bankers like an infant needs mother's milk. And lots of taxpayers might object anyway, because it still would involve sending big checks to banks.

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