U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called on Congress to move rather expeditiously on the Bush administration’s $700 billion proposal to bail out the financial system.

In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Paulson, after addressing the issue of irresponsibility in lending practices, said that the capital or credit markets had become frozen, which made it virtually impossible for U.S. companies to raise adequate financing.

Paulson said:

The credit markets are right now frozen and we need to deal with this and deal with it quickly.

Mr. Paulson reiterated the fact that the system faces significant risks from over complexity, which makes all illiquid debt securities very difficult to value. He also noted that an overhaul of the outdated U.S. regulatory system for financial markets is necessary. However, the first job, said Paulson, is to get the rescue package passed by Congress.

The White House recently said it was ready to work with Congress to enact legislation quickly in order to allow the government to purchase hundreds of billions of dollars worth of bad mortgage-related assets from American based companies with a significant exposure to the collapse of the housing market.

By National Association of Realtors

On May 27, 2008, NAR and the U.S. Department of Justice reached a favorable settlement, concluding a two-year DOJ investigation (followed by two and a half years of litigation) regarding NAR’s multiple listing policy as it pertained to the display of listings from the MLS on brokers’ virtual office Web sites, or VOWs.

What the settlement accomplishes

The proposed terms (PDF 28K) are a win for NAR, REALTORS®, and consumers, and confirm that MLS members must be actively engaged in real estate brokerage (PDF 32K) by actually helping people buy or sell homes.

This will ensure that MLSs are used for what they were originally intended to do — to help real estate professionals find buyers for people who want to sell their homes. NAR has also agreed to adopt a revised Virtual Office Web site policy (PDF 36K) that NAR will request MLSs to adopt.