After yesterday’s vote and subsequent defeat of the government bailout plan, lawmakers are scrambling to revise it.

One of the proposals being considered is raising the federal deposit insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000.  This would help prevent runs on banks and restore confidence that Americans won’t lose their savings.

Another proposal in the works is modifying the ”mark to market” accounting rules, which require banks and other financial institutions to adjust the value of their assets to reflect current market prices, even if they plan to hold the assets for years.  House Republicans argue that current rules forced banks to report huge paper losses on mortgage-backed securities, which might have been avoided if they could have pegged the values of those securities to their future market value (which was standard practice before Sarbanes-Oxley).

Democrats are suggesting other changes to the government bailout plan, including extending unemployment insurance and banning some forms of short selling.

Other ideas that have been floated include the creation of an insurance program whereby Wall Street institutions would purchase insurance and the reduction of corporate and capital gains tax rates.

Given these various proposals, what do you think should be included in the revised government bailout plan?  Do you have any other suggestions beyond what’s listed above?

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