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Henry Paulson has suggested that part of the genius of his plan to save the US financial system by purchasing toxic mortgage paper from banks and brokerages is that it is simple and free of bias. He argued that adding provisions that are designed to limit management compensation at firms which are bailed out or riders to aid individual homeowners would create too may layers of complexity and dilute the core benefits of the program.
Paulson poisoned this well by belatedly adding a new proposal to his own plan. According to The New York Times, "Foreign banks, which were initially excluded from the plan, lobbied successfully over the weekend to be able to sell the toxic American mortgage debt owned by their American units to the Treasury, getting the same treatment as United States banks."
