Alternative US bailout: Erp, anyone?

It may just be a clever gambit to derail or modify Treasury secretary Hank Paulson’s $700bn Wall Street bailout. But the alternative plan circulated on Thursday night by conservative Republican lawmakers – calling for the government to insure toxic securities rather than buy them – has some advantages over Paulson’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. From the bare-bones outline of the Republican rebels’ Economic Rescue Principles making the rounds, the insurance scheme could be more taxpayer friendl...