Two BIG DEAL Stories: Who is Making Treasury's Financial Rescue Calls and Expanding the Rescue Beyond Banks

It is election day and most of the country is rightly focused on voting. However, there are two stories out there that have a major impact on how long a recovery will take and what it would look like.

Here's why you care: First the New York Time's Mark Lander profiles the key players at the Treasury Department quarterbacking the $700 billion economic rescue package. You care because they are making the calls as to which financial institutions the Treasury Department will injected your money into. And, they are making the rules by which Wall Street is going to play as it claws out of the downturn. The key part to this story is that until now we haven't really known who these folks are, but the Times even has a bio breakdown for you.

That brings us to the second must read story by the Wall Street Journal's Deborah Solomon who reports that the very same $700 billion rescue package run by the folks profiled in the Times may be broadening beyond financial institutions (like Bank of America, etc. - the Journal has a list of those that have already received tax payer dollars) to now include specialty finance firms and bond insurers. What's that mean?

Here's why you care: That means a unit of GE may get the same type of cash infusion in exchange for the Treasury receiving the right to some of the company's stock. Don't shrug. This matters - you are already an investor in a bunch of banks. You now may be an investor in things like GE's finance unit.

We're not saying that's good or bad, rather enlightening because it is a significant change. That's why you need to read these two stories. Yes, read the polls on election day, but remember whoever is the next president (regardless of party affiliation) has to deal with the economic issues in order deal with every issue from war to healthcare. Understanding these two pieces will put you ahead of the curve for the coverage over the next few months.