Well, I'm not going to change my mind, this is not an argument, I've not the means to find out how much is needed to buy the commercial paper based on portfolios of mortgages that banks hold but it won't be sufficient, (just saw President Bill, that's right), if you don't want the taxpayer ending up paying, you'll have to change the management of these mortgages, probably renegociate them, in some cases change the contract to a rent to buy to allow people to stay in their homes (still better than a forced sale where everybody will loose money), at least reduce the margin when obviously it's far above market standards. I even take the bet if you want that if management of these contracts is changed(not talking about the commercial paper, it's about the mortgages) in two years time you can resell commercial papers based on these mortgages with a confortable profit. But you need to change, find or create a private vehicule to manage these mortgages.