Will the bailout work?

As the federal government steps to the center of the financial crisis, crafting plans to take ownership of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of bad mortgages, a pair of simple questions rise to the fore: Will this intervention finally be enough restore order? And what will this grand rescue cost taxpayers?

The Treasury Department, as overseer of the financial system, has unleashed an astonishing array of initiatives in a bid to stave off catastrophe. It took over the country's largest mortgage finance companies and put untold billions of taxpayer dollars on the line to prop up other lenders.

Now, although the details...