Only Banks Getting Biggest Bailouts Will Get Tougher Terms

"This afternoon, the Treasury Department released the details for how it will conduct a second round of bank investments. Briefly, the plan is to assess how the nation's 19 biggest banks would fare in a kind of worst-case scenario (e.g. unemployment hitting 10.3 percent in 2010, GDP dropped 3.3 percent in 2009, etc.), and then to force the bank to raise money (what the release calls an "additional capital buffer") to prepare for that pessimistic scenario. If the bank can't raise the money privately, the government will provide the cash. The tests are beginning immediately and should be finished by the end of April (PDF)."