Reuters – FDIC, U.S. Treasury clash on anti-foreclosure plan: “A top U.S. banking regulator unveiled a plan on Friday to prevent about 1.5 million foreclosures, breaking ranks with the Bush administration by demanding bailout funds be diverted from banks to consumers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said the plan would modify millions of delinquent mortgages and the government would reward participating lenders by sharing the cost of defaults on restructured loans.” [See this CQ Transcript for more details: FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair is Interviewed on NPR’s “Morning Edition”]

• WSJ: “U.S. lawmakers kept up the criticism of the Treasury Department’s management of the $700 billion financial rescue plan on Friday, accusing officials of being disingenuous in the way they sold the program to Congress…Treasury Assistant Secretary Neel Kashkari, who is heading up the government’s implementation of the rescue plan, defended the department’s actions, saying that no one should expect the plan to solve all of the nation’s economic problems. “It’s not a stimulus, it’s not an economic growth plan,” Mr. Kashkari told lawmakers. “It’s an economic stabilization plan.”
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