Where's that Hanky Panky

Here's the text of Hank Paulson's big speech today. There's some good stuff in there--but, of course, words only matter so much. As Matt Yglesias notes, it's perfectly fine to talk about keeping banks from becoming too big to fail, but ultimately useless (and puzzling) if in practice the bailout is, at least in part, a scheme to keep banks in business long enough to be purchased at cut-rate prices by other, bigger, more solvent banks. Likewise, it's nice to know that the Treasury Secretary does in fact understand that lowering foreclosure rates is part of the solution to the financial crisis and other economic woes, but to this point, he's used none of his discretionary power (either pre- or post-TARP) to help struggling people renegotiate into more affordable mortgages, etc., etc.