NOT THE NEW DEAL IS THE POINT:

A successful bailout? Watch lending between banks (JEANNINE AVERSA, 9/28/08, AP)

The New Deal it is not. The government's biggest economic bailout since the Great Depression is aimed not at relieving unemployment or reforming questionable business practices, but at resuscitating financial markets debilitated by lousy bets on the housing market.

Put simply, the hastily crafted plan lawmakers agreed to in principle on Sunday is intended to revive jittery and fragile banks on Wall Street with enough money — by using taxpayer funds to purchase billions upon billions of their worst mortgage-related assets — so that lending, the lifeblood of the American economy, flows freely again.

If it is working, signs will emerge almost immediately in the interest rates on U.S. bonds and in an array of obscure — but crucial — financial benchmarks.