After putting his embarrassing tax situation behind him, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Tuesday moved on to his next headache: selling a bailout-weary American public on a plan to hand out more cash to bankers, help financial firms make new investments, and rescue home owners who can’t pay their mortgages. So how did it go? Well, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted nearly 400 points, as investors criticized the plan’s lack of details and economists worried it might not be enough to heal the battered credit markets. “There have been any number of [press] leaks over the last month that had more detail than what we got today,” says Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital. “[The lack of clarity is] obviously very disconcerting to the markets.” With that in mind, here are five things you need to know about the Obama administration’s new bailout plan:
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