New US treasury secretary Tim Geithner, former head of the New York Federal Reserve, has been given a right roasting by the markets since he announced his outline rescue plan for the US economy after taking office. "There's no detail," they all said, hardly giving the poor guy time to get his feet under the desk. But today he unveiled the detail, basically an offer of public/private partnerships to take on banks' distressed debt and, separately, mortgage liabilities. The US government will put in equity to such deals and provide the usual billions, trillions (what's bigger than a trillion?) of soft loans to entice investors like hedge funds and, er, banks. But it looks like the right solution as it will entice the private sector to open their wallets, thinking they might grab a bargain, and rid the banks of the worst of their liabilities. And by helping to underwrite the home loans market it might just kick the sector into upward mode (there are already some small signs that the US housing crisis is bottoming out, with new starts on apartment buildings sharply up in February). Wall Street soared by nearly 400 points this afternoon and the London market was up strongly too on the news. Mr Blatherskite's broker Roger rang him today and said, "fill yer boots!" Which means buy shares. So I'd be a bit cautious if I were you (you know what Roger's like).