"After a bruising battle to get it through a doubting Congress, the Bush
administration's $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan has morphed into
something else entirely. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Plan - signed
by President Bush on Oct. 3 - ostensibly began as a plan to purchase
distressed mortgages and other bad assets. However today it involves the
government taking direct equity stakes in banks, and at least one bank used
the money to buy a rival."