The Week of September 29

Congress had plans to head off for the campaign trail last Friday - but it'll stick around for at least a day this week to try to pass what is by all accounts the nation's largest bailout in history. 

The financial rescue plan: After a roller-coaster week of negotiations and political theater, congressional leaders and the administration announced they have the outlines of a deal on how to keep Wall Street from plummeting into deep credit-freeze. The bill (which still has details in the works) would let the Fed take on up to $700 billion in mortgage-backed securities (the bum debt that's been sinking financial giants and has the rest of the market on edge). The deal would give Congress oversight of the rescue operation, in part by dividing up the bailout into three installments, with the last needing Congress' approval. Another compromise would give tax payers some stock in the companies they help out and limit the size of CEO golden parachutes in those companies.