The draft bailout bill provides "authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers, and for other purposes". It's the biggest financial rescue since the Great Depression and all eyes are on Congress for what is expected to be a tough vote.

But the bigger question is will it work? Will it actually save the US economy? Will it save businesses from going under?

Dr Doom, Nouriel Roubini says the only thing it will do will be to help bank shareholders and unsecured creditors.

"The Treasury plan is a disgrace: a bailout of reckless bankers, lenders and investors that provides little direct debt relief to borrowers and financially stressed households and that will come at a very high cost to the US taxpayer. And the plan does nothing to resolve the severe stress in money markets and interbank markets that are now close to a systemic meltdown. It is pathetic that Congress did not consult any of the many professional economists that have presented ... alternative plans that were more fair and efficient and less costly ways to resolve this crisis. This is again a case of privatizing the gains and socializing the losses; a bailout and socialism for the rich, the well-connected and Wall Street. And it is a scandal that even Congressional Democrats have fallen for this Treasury scam that does little to resolve the debt burden of millions of distressed home owners."

It's a "slap in the face for the free market system", says Jack Crooks at Money and Markets."At this stage, adherence to free market theory would allow for an efficient cleansing period and a healthy recovery period. How? Irresponsible and unprofitable businesses fail. Bad debts get liquidated. Excess resources go on sale, flow into more stable ventures and pool together with more profitable resources controlled by healthy corporations or entities. Sure, pain is felt by certain parties who can't keep things going. But the moving parts become more efficient and stronger. Healthier, more efficient businesses emerge. As the Austrian School of economists says, the bigger the boom generated by manipulation of money and credit, the bigger the ultimate bust. That's important, because thanks to the massive manufacturing and sale of derivatives, there has never been a boom supported to such a large degree by thin air. And since the laws of gravity haven't been outlawed yet, what goes up must come down."

The International Herald Tribune warns that things will never be the same. "Even if the bailout stabilizes the markets, Wall Street won't go back to its freewheeling, profit-spinning ways of old. After years of lax regulation, Wall Street firms will face much stronger oversight by regulators who are looking to tighten the reins on many practices that allowed the Street to flourish. For Goldman and Morgan Stanley, which are converting themselves into bank holding companies, that means their primary regulators become the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversee banking institutions ... More important, a stiffened regulatory regime across Wall Street following the crisis is likely to reduce the use and abuse of its favorite addictive drug: leverage."

Stanford's Ari J Officer and the University of Illinois' Lawrence H. Officer remind us that this will have no impact on the mortgage and housing crisis and that the only thing it's designed to help are those mortgage backed securities.

"The government should not intervene. It should leave overleveraged financial institutions to default on their derivatives obligations and, if necessary, file for bankruptcy. Much of the crisis has arisen from miscalculating the risks involved in a large book of positions in these derivatives. It is only logical that these institutions pay for their poor management. Rather than bailing out Wall Street, we propose that the government should buy up the actual mortgages in question and do nothing else. The government should not touch any derivatives, that is, claims that do not directly tie into the actual mortgages. If money becomes too tight, then the Fed can certainly increase its loans to financial institutions. Let the poorly managed, overly risk-taking financial institutions fail! Always remember that Wall Street and the real economy are not the same thing."