House Votes Down Rescue Plan

The finalized bailout plan reflects lawmakers' insistence on some control over Treasury's spending. The administration would get $250 billion immediately, followed by another $100 billion if the president certified it was required, according to the AP report. The final $350 billion would require a separate certification and be subject to a congressional resolution of disapproval, the report added. The president could veto this resolution, however.

Negotiations made a breakthrough when Democrats agreed to incorporate a Republican demand to have the government insure some debt instead of buying it, the report said.

The plan would prevent participating companies from giving "golden parachutes" to their executives and aims to limit pay packages, the AP report said. Firms that get $300 million or more of help from the program would have to pay heavy taxes on executive compensation of more than $500,000 a year, the report added.

Taxpayers would also get the opportunity to share in the future profits of companies that participate, because the government would receive stock warrants in return for the help, according to the report.

In an effort to help homeowners facing foreclosure, the plan also would require the government to try to rework bad mortgages it acquires so as to lower borrowers' monthly payments, the report added.

The current crisis, which has its roots in the risky mortgages that were liberally issued earlier this decade and the housing boom that they fueled, has shaken the financial system to its foundations. It has claimed storied investment banks Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. This week it forced the government to shut down Washington Mutual(WM Quote) and sell its deposits and assets to JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote). Also this week, former investment banks Goldman Sachs (GS Quote) and Morgan Stanley (MS Quote) asked to be made into traditional bank holding companies in order to stave off a market attack on their shares.

The success of the rescue of the U.S. financial system probably depends as much on the central banks of China and the Middle East as on Congress and the Federal Reserve, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The U.S. is turning to foreign governments and other overseas investors to buy a good chunk of the $700 billion in Treasury debt expected to finance the bailout. Foreign investors also are needed to shore up the depleted capital of the nation's financial institutions, the Journal reports.

Where will the Dow Jones Industrial Average stand at the end of 2008?
	Above 10,000 9000-10,000 8000-9000 7000 to 8000 Below 7000