The Treasury will buy banks' risky mortgage-backed assets in an effort to alleviate investors' worries about the institutions' solvency and free them up to do more lending.

Even if those efforts succeed, the effects of the FED bailout will be far from instantaneous, and borrowing could remain very expensive for some time.

With the economy in such a weak state, lending to consumers and businesses will still appear risky until certain factors -- particularly employment and the housing market -- improve.

It could also get even harder for certain individuals to get home loans.

Banks have gotten more stringent in their mortgage underwriting, and Wisconsin's affordable-housing agency recently suspended making loans for single-family homes because it was unable to sell tax-exempt mortgage re