A cure for Ebola?

The mot de jour for the last few days was 'tsunami'. Now it seems we need something more potent. Bloomberg quotes Ed Steffelin: ``People are calling it financial Ebola,''. Certainly the moves in ABS spreads are impressive:

Yields on three-year, AAA rated credit-card bonds with floating rates rose to 75 basis points over the London interbank offered rate, up from 40 basis points at the start of the year [...] Spreads over three-year swap rates for three-year, AAA rated fixed-rate auto-loan securities rose to 140 basis points, up from 75 basis points. The average spread over U.S. Treasuries on AAA rated commercial-mortgage securities climbed to 364 basis points, from 167 basis points on Dec. 31

Meanwhile, a sticking plaster is in sight. Henry (when did he become Henry? I thought it was always Hank - perhaps that's the best sign of how serious things are) Paulson is to release new proposals within weeks:

``We're looking at the mortgage-origination process, we're looking at the securitization process, we're looking at rating agencies, we're looking at disclosure issues, we're looking at capital issues and regulatory issues,'' he said in an interview today with Bloomberg Television. More specifics will come ``in the weeks ahead,'' he said.

Now clearly action is needed. But speedy action has its dangers too, and Paulson has a big list of maladies there. Treat at haste, autopsy at leisure perhaps?