links for 2008-09-28

House and Senate negotiators were pushing closer to a bailout deal with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Saturday night—with new interest in finding a way for Wall Street to pay part of the cost.

One option that has gained momentum: a plan that would require Treasury to impose a fee on financial companies’ transactions in the future to help the government recover any losses from the purchase and sale of mortgage-related assets.

Paulson has been open to the idea, which could prove attractive to both deficit-conscious Blue Dog Democrats and conservative Republicans who have argued that Wall Street—rather than taxpayers—should shoulder a big part of the cost.

Racing to reach a deal before the markets open Monday, lawmakers met late into the night in the Capitol office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) . Paulson set up a sort of command center in the office of Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), with lawmakers and staffers criss-crossing Statuary Hall
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No bailout

The first debate between John McCain and Barack Obama is on track to pull a surprisingly average viewership number, drawing fewer households in the preliminary ratings than George W. Bush's face off against John Kerry four years ago.

In the meter-market overnights, Friday night's 90-minute debate in Mississippi received a preliminary household rating of 33.2, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That's 16% lower than the national number from the 2004 debate, which aired on a Thursday — generally TV's most-watched night of the week. Friday's number is only slightly above George W. Bush and Al Gore's first debate in 2000 and the Clinton-Dole debate in 1996.

The US stock market could suffer a devastating crash with shares losing a third of their value this week if Hank Paulson’s financial bailout plan fails, US Treasury officials have warned.