Beneath the surface, however, questions about the administration's approach began to be voiced among members of Congress, as well as outside analysts. And, with the Nov. 4 presidential election only weeks away, political tensions inevitably arose as well.
On Capitol Hill, conservative Republicans denounced the administration's move away from free-market principles.
"At this point, Congress is being asked to support an uncertain entity, costing an uncertain amount of dollars, for an uncertain duration -- a decision that will have implications for generations to come and requires absolute certainty," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), a leader of House conservatives.
"My fear is that taxpayers will be left with the mother of all debts."
Meanwhile, Democrats complained that the White House was offering too much help to financial companies that bet big on risky mortgage investments, and not enough to people losing their homes to foreclosure.
They expressed special irritation with what they described as Paulson's insistence that Congress approve the administration proposal "clean," without any aid for troubled homeowners or regulations aimed at preventing a repeat of the current disaster.
"It's got to be done right away, but they won't make any concessions in order to get it to happen," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), who sits on the House Financial Services Committee.
"They are playing Russian roulette in the hopes that if the economy gets shot, the Democrats get blamed," Sherman said.
Even policy analysts who are generally not averse to government intervention in the economy seemed taken aback by the apparent scale and aggressiveness of what the administration and the Fed have in mind. Robert E. Litan, an ex-Clinton administration Treasury official who is now a senior analyst with the Brookings Institution, said the new plan seemed to invite banks and securities firms to dump their very worst assets on the government with no clear way for Washington to get rid of them.
"What they're going to get is the financial equivalent of radioactive waste," he warned.
Earlier in the week, the Dow Jones industrial average fell to its lowest level in almost three years as giant financial institutions teetered on the verge of collapse and global credit markets seized up as banks hoarded their cash.
Financial markets began recovering Thursday, when federal officials expressed support for a comprehensive plan to defuse the crisis.
