>>>http://assets.sunlightfoundation.com/pdf/eesa2008.pdf
>>>
>>>The goal of the bill should be to prevent system meltdown while people and institutions that made foolish bets loose their money and those that cooked the documents go to jail.
>>>
>>>There doesn't seem to be a mechanism in the bill to determine a reasonably discounted price for the items sold to the Govt, so it seems true that the bill needs more work before approval.
>>
>>There's the rub. One of the reasons for the crisis is nobody knows what some of this stuff is worth.
>
>But it certainly is not 100%. I am not clear on what what a reverse auction is exactly. Can someone explain?

That's a good question. I don't know either.

No, not 100%, but it makes a difference whether a company is worth 80% of book value or 10%. Before Lehman Brothers went under they were valuing their stock at $200 a share and the market was valuing it at $20 a share.