Delaying the Inevitable

The Treasury Department is delaying announcement of its financial recovery plan (Son of TARP) for another week to figure out the dirty details. It's pretty clear what the end result needs to be--getting banks and other financial institutions to writedown asset values to rational levels. And that means values are headed well below current prices. Only when investors, homebuyers, and lenders are convinced that the market is at or near bottom will more normalized transaction activity take place. And then recovery can begin.