So how do you deal with toxic assets?

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Because Citi is so big, it got lucky. The government will shoulder the lion's share of losses stemming from its portfolio of toxic assets. But that raises an obvious question: What about other banks that hold equally toxic securities. The government will not likely be tailoring similar deals for banks of less systemic significance, notes CNBC. (Even though President Bush says there may be more bailouts.) Nor is the government still committed to using TARP funds to buy securities directly. So what recourse do they have? The most likely route would be to somehow raise capital in a way that allows them to write off a lot of these securities or somehow segregate them into an off-balance sheet entity, which has been a no-no in the post-Enron era. Either way, it won't be easy. As long as mortgages continue to tank, it will get even harder.

For more:
- here's a CNBC article

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TARP news from FierceFinance