House of Representatives Rejects Financial Bailout Legislation, Dow Jones Plummets 777 Points

Today the House of Representatives voted 228-205 against passing a bailout package. The rescue package will eventually help most lending institutions, from the Wall Street power brokers to the Main Street community banks. In turn, big and small borrowers will be helped with lower costs for loans and more competition from banks for their business.

Congress now has three options.

Option 1) Adjourn and end the legislative session. Then come back and 2009 and revisit the issue. This gives Members an opportunity to focus on re-election and not be accused of bailing out wealthy bankers. But liquidity - the amount of money available to lend - will likely dry up in days if action does not happen soon.

Option 2) Adjourn until after the election. Then hold a lame-duck session of Congress after the election. But again, the same pros and cons in Option 1 apply.

Option 3) Introduce a new bailout package that convinces enough Members to vote for the bill. Vote for the bill before the end of this week. This is the most likely scenario.