I cringe along with everyone else at the notion of Henry Paulson spending up to $1 trillion in public money to buy bad mortgage-backed securities from failing financial institutions. There is one potentially bright spot, pointed out by (gulp) Barney Frank: These securities will be purchased at a steep discount, and will be worth a whole lot more after restructuring. The software was always right. Securitized mortgages paid off, even allowing for defaults. Right now, somebody with some authority needs to engineer the financial rework. Congress just wants to wait around, then point fingers. Paulson has been given the authority, and, unfortunately, he has to use it.
