Democrats Set Bailout Conditions as Treasury Chief Rallies Support (NYT)
There's like $1.5 trillion on the line with this new bailout plan -- really, the mother of all spending schemes. This is lobbyist and special interest heaven, and you'd be negligent to not get try getting something of that for your pet cause. But it's a game of sorts... the Democrats want to push their agenda as far as it can go, without being held responsible if the deal (and then the economy) collapses. We're hopeful that the Dems push too far in their demands for stuff like "no more Wall St. bonuses for the next 10 years" etc. Not that that's technically what they're proposing, but still.

Nomura reportedly gets Lehman's Asia business (MarketWatch)
Another snappy asset sale... this time Lehman's Asia ops are going to Nomura for $225 million. Nothing official -- all based on folks familiar with the matter.

What Would Hayek Say? (Organizations & Markets)
Hint: It has to do with the notion that injecting cash into the economy is not the way to solve a problem borne by too much easy money.

The housing meltdown: Why did it happen in the US? (EconBrowser)
A new paper takes a stab at the question. It arrives at one conclusion several have already pointed to: That a concerted effort to expand homeownership to people previously not served by the mortgage system (read: the poor, the less credit-worthy), as well as an effort to expand homeownership efforts outside of the GSE system, a direct response to the well-known accounting issues Fannie and Freddie had been facing.