Tarp/foreign banks: Not much Euro bailout

The first version of Hank Paulson’s $700bn bailout looked like a boon for European banks who had wallowed in the US mortgage swamp. The US Treasury Secretary’s scheme not only seemingly promised to buy troubled assets at a premium to market prices; it was also open to foreign banks with significant US operations. No wonder the shares in Barclays, Deutsche Bank, RBS and UBS - all of which were significant players in the market - shot up. But the plan that comes out of the Washington political wri...