When Hank Paulson first came up with his bail-out strategy for the US banking system, he called finance ministers around the world to explain the details. “We need to dynamite this thing,” the US Treasury secretary said of his plan to end the freeze in global credit markets.

One European minister asked what would happen if the Treasury's $700bn programme to buy up the banks' toxic debts failed to crack the ice. “We have nothing else,” Mr Paulson replied bluntly. The Treasury secretary seems to have assumed that Congress would do as it was told. Perhaps gilded alumni of Goldman Sachs are unaccustomed to being over-ruled by mere politicians.

We must hope that by now Mr Paulson has a plan B – and, for that matter, a plan C. Even if, as is widely expected, the US House of Representatives overturns itself and passes a version of the package, few experts believe it will be enough of itself to restore trust to the banking system and confidence to the markets.