Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, A.I.G., and…who's next? Washington Mutual? There will most certainly be another government bailout of a private sector failure, but no one seems to know how or when this ugly chapter in U.S. finance will end.

"The question is, and it's just a question, is, 'Are we at the point where the private market has made so many bad decisions and is so depressed that it can't get out from under?'" Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services committee, asked this week.

Frank's committee plans hearings next week to attempt to answer that question, but judging by last night's $85 billion federal rescue of A.I.G. and today's turmoil surrounding Morgan Stanley and Washington Mutual, we already know the answer. It's a resounding yes.

In recent days, policy wonks and legislators have floated the idea of resurrecting the Resolution Trust Corporation, the agency formed by the government to unwind hundreds of insolvent savings and loans in the early 1990s. Funded by Congress, the unit helped to liquidate the assets of more than 700 thrifts over a six-year period. Once the job was done, the agency was absorbed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

It's a smart answer to today's crisis that's hobbled by one major obstacle. With seven weeks until the election, we simply can't get another R.T.C. when we need it.

Washington's failure to regulate these overleveraged institutions is now trumped by its failure to provide a fix due to poor timing on the calendar.

Until now, the Federal Reserve has fulfilled the role of rescuer by exercising an emergency power that it was granted after the Great Depression. In certain circumstances, it can loan money to any company or individual that can't otherwise borrow funds.

But just how long these extreme circumstances will continue to cripple large financial institutions is anyone's guess, and the Fed was never meant to be the only answer to a long-term, systemic problem such as the one the mortgage crisis has created.

There is one group of huge losers in all this, no matter how you slice it: taxpayers. Now, it's time to weigh whether it would pose more of a burden to fund a new agency to help solve the problems or to continue using taxpayer money through the Federal Reserve.

Moreover, with each massive government bailout, more and more struggling homeowners wonder where their bailout money is. It's hard for average Americans to understand how the bankruptcy of A.I.G. might have impacted them, but they understand perfectly well how they can no longer afford their monthly mortgage payments.

Both presidential candidates are calling for more regulation of the financial markets that got us into this mess.  It's hopeful that the next president sees that as a priority, but it's unfortunate that the fix is so far out on the horizon.

By the time a new administration and a new Congress hammers out a regulatory framework for this crisis, Lehman Brothers will be long forgotten.