The Beijing consensus comes to Washington

If people had heard the details of U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithners plan to absorb toxic assets a year ago, they could have been excused for mistaking the message as coming from Beijing. The scheme will use government resources in the form of capital from the Treasury, and financing from the FDIC and Federal Reserve, to mobilize capital from private investors, Geithner wrote in the Wall Street Journal. We as a nation must work together to strike the right balance between our need to promote the public trust and using taxpayer money prudently to strengthen the financial system.