The other thing I don't get is why, even if we are bailing out Wall St, we would give a $700 billion blank check to one organization, with accountability strictly forbidden ("Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.") This seems like a perfect recipe for unbridled corruption.

Oh, and just one question on your question: is it the case that we could actually rescue anything by bailing out the homeowners? Lots of them have been foreclosed already, so there are lots of houses sitting around empty and losing value rapidly, that the banks need to get some sort of value out of or they'll lose even more money. Would a homeowner bailout be too late at this point? I don't actually know, I'm just curious.