Economist George Hoffer says money isn’t the most important part of the bailout package that Congress and the White House have proposed for the U.S. automobile industry. The $15 billion in loans for two automakers would be a fraction of what the industry needs to survive, while the power of a proposed “car czar” is the most critical piece of the package, said Hoffer, a professor at VCU and an expert in transportation issues who has studied and written about the auto industry since the 1960s.

So far, the one Richmond-based financial firm that’s getting help from the federal bailout is the one that says it doesn’t need it.

Timing is everything for financial institutions looking for help from an array of hastily devised federal programs to stem the credit crisis.

When the news came that Citigroup Inc. stock had plummeted 60 percent in recent weeks, I felt an immediate kinship with the financial giant. The last time I checked, my 401(k) plan had plummeted in a manner similar to Citigroup.

The government unveiled a bold plan yesterday to rescue troubled Citigroup, including taking a $20 billion stake in the firm as well as guaranteeing hundreds of billions of dollars in risky assets.

Auto bailout?: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called for “emergency and limited financial assistance” for the battered auto industry and urged the Bush administration to join lawmakers in reaching a quick compromise. President-elect Barack Obama has prodded the Bush administration to do more to help the industry. Officials familiar with the conversation said the president replied he was open to the idea.

When the government offered an emergency loan to insurer American International Group in September, eyebrows shot up at the $85 billion price. Now, it looks like pocket change. The size of the AIG lifeline swelled to more than $150 billion yesterday, a record for a private company. But the head of the broader financial-rescue package was cool to other companies reaching for a piece of the bailout pie.

WASHINGTON (AP)—The government is providing new financial assistance to troubled insurance giant American International Group, including pouring $40 billion into the company in return for partial ownership. The action was announced jointly by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. All told the moves boost aid to the company to around $150 billion.

American International Group Inc. late yesterday was reportedly near a deal for a revised bailout package from the U.S. government that would make borrowing terms easier for the insurer. A proposed $123 billion bailout package would be replaced with a $150 billion package, according to the Wall Street Journal. Details of the arrangement could be announced today, when AIG is scheduled to report its third-quarter results, the Journal said. The plan reportedly would replace an $85 billion two-year loan with a $60 billion five-year loan at a lower interest rate. The government also reportedly would inject $40 billion into AIG in exchange for preferred stock.

Is $700 billion too much? John Boschen, associate dean at the College of William & Mary Mason School of Business, said he is in favor of government intervention to shore up the financial markets. “But $700 billion is a nuclear option. “There are things you can do that are not so dramatic,“ Boschen said. “We are headed into a recession, regardless. I don’t think the recession will be a lot worse if this proposal is watered down.“

Wall Street’s convulsions may give most investors the jitters—but not the giants who manage Virginia government workers’ pensions. “We’re around for the long term to pay benefits, and any short-term market decline isn’t going to affect that,“ said Robert P. Schultze, director of the Virginia Retirement System, the country’s 24th-largest pension fund with more than 600,000 members, retirees and beneficiaries.

Former Gov. Mark R. Warner said he would have voted for the $700 billion financial bailout plan that the House of Representatives rejected Monday, but would have liked to see some changes made to it. “The option was no action or action,“ he said. “This is not one you can say we’ve got to wait another 30 days and play Russian roulette. I would have liked to have seen it improved.“

Five Virginia House Republicans and one Democrat voted against the $700 billion financial bailout. Three Virginia Republicans and two Democrats voted for the measure, which would have authorized the federal government to buy a host of bad, mortgage-backed assets from Wall Street firms. The five Virginia Republicans voting “no” were Reps. Robert J. Wittman, R-1st; Thelma Drake, R-2nd; J. Randy Forbes, R-4th; Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-5th; and Robert W. Goodlatte, R-6th.

In a vote that shook the government, Wall Street and markets around the world, the House of Representatives yesterday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation’s financial system, leaving both parties and the Bush administration struggling to pick up the pieces. The Dow Jones industrials plunged nearly 800 points, the most ever for a single day.

Jim Gilmore, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, may be getting his wish. Several hours before the House of Representatives defeated President Bush’s proposed $700 billion rescue of the financial industry, Gilmore said that if he were now in the Senate, he would slow consideration of the bailout. That’s because, the former Virginia governor told the editorial board of The Times-Dispatch yesterday, Congress needs to better understand the crisis and its origins.