US financial bailout: It is rocket science

Emphasizing speed, the Treasury Department posted on its website the specifications companies will have to meet to apply for the asset jobs and asked interested companies to submit applications by 5 p.m. EDT Wednesday. Even with this fast approach, it is not expected that the first asset sales will occur until after the Nov. 4 presidential election.

Treasury also announced that it was expanding its debt auctions in order to obtain the resources to make the upcoming asset purchases, announcing the sale of $100 billion in short-term debt just this week.

In addition, the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, which includes Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, said in a statement released Monday before markets opened that it would move "with substantial force on a number of fronts" to implement the expanded authorities granted to the government when Congress passed the emergency rescue package last Friday.

The Fed also made a number of moves Monday to bolster its resources to supply emergency loans to the financial system.

Investors initially were not reassured. Stocks tumbled with the Dow Jones industrial average falling at one point by as much as 800 points, a record, before recovering to close down by 370 points.