Bailout Talks Turn to More Equity Stakes
This editorial from the Wall Street Journal talks about the Obama administration's financial-rescue plan shaping up to include capital injections with tougher terms than the first round and an expansion of an existing Federal Reserve lending facility that could potentially buy up toxic assets clogging the system, according to people familiar with the plans.

The Gang System
David Brooks contends the big news here is that there are many Democrats who don't want to move in a conventional liberal direction and there some Republicans willing to work with them to create a functioning center.

On the Edge
Paul Krugman writes, "As the great American economist Irving Fisher pointed out almost 80 years ago, deflation, once started, tends to feed on itself." ... "Worst of all is the possibility that the economy will, as it did in the '30s, end up stuck in a prolonged deflationary trap."

Watchdog Says U.S. Overpaid For Troubled Assets of Banks
Lawmakers seized on a government watchdog's assertion that the Treasury Department may have significantly overpaid for its investments in financial institutions, saying the government shouldn't benefit the banking industry at the expense of taxpayers according to another Wall Street Journal editorial.

Trying to Help Financially Troubled Homeowners
Now policy makers are talking about redrawing this map by putting the bankruptcy court before foreclosure to give people a chance to keep their homes in this article from the New York Times.

Stimulus Plan Has $1 Billion to Hire More Local Police
The so-called COPS Program, for Community Oriented Policing Services, is aimed to add 100,000 police officers to local departments in eight years. Whether it met that goal is the subject of heated debate in law enforcement and public policy circles in this New York Times article.

The New Landonists
The essence of the crisis, and what distinguishes both the Depression and the current meltdown from every recession between the '30s and today, is that, left to their own devices, private lending and investment will not and cannot bounce back according to Harold Meyerson in yesterday's Washington Post.

Struggling To Find Work in Massachusetts
You've heard the stories: Unemployment in Massachusetts is at a 15-year high, at 6.9 percent, translating into nearly 250,000 residents in the Bay State who find themselves out of work. This story by Bob Oakes ran this morning on WBUR.