Leave it to a Nobel prize-winning economist to rain on Wall Street's parade! Joseph Stiglitz, who teaches at Columbia now, told Reuters that the Treasury Department's plan—embraced by the markets yesterday—"is very badly flawed." Pointing out that taxpayers are being used by the government to guarantee the assets, while private investors are getting the upside, Stiglitz said, "Quite frankly, this amounts to robbery of the American people. I don't think it's going to work because I think there'll be a lot of anger about putting the losses so much on the shoulder of the American taxpayer." Right now, stock futures are down. Stiglitz was cited by the 2001 Nobel Prize committee for his contributions about understanding asymmetric information in the markets. more ›

Wall Street was much happier with the Obama administration's plans for dealing with toxic assets and sent the markets soaring: The Dow closed up 497 points (6.84%) to end at 7775 points; the S&P 500 rose 7.08%; and the Nasdaq climbed 6.76%. One "market pro" told CNBC, "You cannot fight this intervention. When you start to see the market just climb after weeks and months of being sold out, you have to participate," while Fusion IQ's Barry Ritholtz told the NY Times, "This is a free money rally. Traders like the fact that there’s a boatload of cash headed their way.” more ›