The Crisis Without an Obvious Solution

The most immediate crisis facing Obama is also the one that he doesn't yet have a plan to address. Edmund L. Andrews
writes in the New York Times: "The president's advisers watched most
banking shares fall sharply on Tuesday, reinforcing what Obama
officials have known for weeks: that their most urgent financial
problem is an immense new wave of losses at banks and other lending
institutions that threatens to further cripple their ability to resume
normal lending. . . .

"While Mr. Obama's top advisers view the
black hole in bank balance sheets as one of their most pressing
problems, they cautioned that they would not be pressured into
announcing a plan before they had carefully thought through all the
options. Instead, they are scrutinizing an array of solutions, each of
which has pitfalls and poses its own risks and dangers."