It's 4:42 AM.

I've been up since 4:00, scouring Google News for the latest headlines on the bank bailout bill.

Here's the latest:

• Everyone hates investment bank executives, so executive pay will get clipped in some way under the plan.
  
• Mr. Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, will not get the blank check he asked for over the weekend. Rather, he will have to answer to Congress on how he spends taxpayer money.
  
• The government will take debt and equity positions in banks it bails out. This means that Mr. Paulson will buy mortgage backed bonds, as well as stock and "warrants" (special equity positions with repayment protections built in). The rationale is that taxpayers stand a better chance of recovering most or all of the money put in if the banks' stock value rises after the bailout.
  
• The government will require help for homeowners in junk loans.
  

We should know more later today, as Congress, Treasury and the Administration continue negotiations.

Here's what's still unclear:

• How homeowners will be helped under the plan,
  
• Whether the final plan will include Bankruptcy Code changes to allow the court to modify a home loan (something taken away as part of the 2005 Bankruptcy Act in a 1993 Supreme Court case), and
  
• Whether the government will pay hedge-fund prices (20 cents on the dollar) or 1980s government contract prices (12,800 cents on the dollar - remember the $640 toilet seat?) or something in between for distressed bank debt and assets.
  

Stay tuned, folks. This should get even more interesting as the day progresses.