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U.S. markets close mixed Wednesday

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. markets closed mixed Wednesday, as the $700 billion bailout proposal was hotly debated in the nation's capital.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke continued to press their case with lawmakers Wednesday, saying the plan to purchase illiquid securities from financial firms is the first step toward an economic recovery.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs announced late Tuesday helped push shares in the firm up early. By the close, however, shares in former investment bank were down 1.88 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average was off 29.00 points, or 0.27 percent to 10,825.17. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 2.35, or 0.2 percent, to 1,185.87. The Nasdaq composite index gained 2.35, or 0.11 percent, to 2,155.68.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond fell 2/32 to yield 3.812 percent.

The dollar was gained Wednesday. The euro fell to $1.4616, compared to $1.4708 Tuesday. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar rose to 106.20 yen, up from 105.30 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei average gained 24.44 points to 12,115.03, up 0.2 percent.

In London, the FTSE 100 index fell 40.60 to 5,095.60, off 0.79 percent.

Paulson pitches plan to House Republicans

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. agreed Wednesday companies benefiting from a bailout plan should impose restrictions on executive pay.

"The American people are angry about executive compensation, and rightfully so," Paulson told the House Financial Services Committee, The New York Times reported.

An early meeting with Republican leaders turned in mixed results, the Times reported.

The chairman of the Republican Party Policy Committee, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, was the first Republican to declare he would vote against the bill, the Times reported.

"They want a public bailout, that's their approach," McCotter said. "We believe in private recapitalization and proper incentivization."

McCotter and other Republicans are pushing to cancel the capital gains tax on the illiquid mortgage-linked assets that are clogging the financial system.

Democrats and Republicans have both reacted to the perception among their constituents that the bailout is focused on helping rich Wall Street executives.

"Truly, my calls are 150-to-1 against it," said Gary Miller, R-Calif. "Overwhelmingly, people in the private sector are looking at this and saying it's just a big bailout for a bunch of fat cats on Wall Street," Miller said.

Main Street is vocal about executive pay

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. public is split over the federal bailout plan, with 44 percent indicating approval and 42 percent indicating disapproval, a recent survey showed.

Many of those for and against the plan in a recent ABC News/Washington Post survey, were concerned about rich Wall Street executives being let off the hook.

"I don't think we should have to bail out people who are supposed to know what they're doing in the first place, especially when you've got the CEOs of those companies walking out with millions of dollars," Karen Gipson of Olive Branch, Miss., told ABC News.

Gipson said she was for the plan, but David Fett, a computer system administrator from Cedar Rapids was opposed and still thought restrictions on executive pay should be included in the bill.

"They were making plenty on Wall Street and they weren't going to share it with you or me or anybody else," Fett said.

"After this latest round of excesses from the private sector, coming on top of years of corporate scandals including Enron, the public is now beginning to think that it needs protection from the tycoons," said Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkley.

Scottish kiltmakers hold summit

PERTH, Scotland, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Scottish kiltmakers hope to protect themselves and their national traditions from cheap imports with a rigid definition of what makes a kilt.

The manufacturers are holding their own summit in the city of Perth, The Telegraph reports. The agenda includes pattern, materials and tartans, the plaid patterns that identify Scottish clans.

One goal is to get legal status for the European Union. Alyn Smith, a Scottish National Party member who sits in the European Parliament, called the summit "music to my ears."

"For too long now we have seen cheap, poorly made, foreign knock-offs being passed off as kilts and it annoys me intensely. The things are not fit to be dishcloths," Smith said. "They undermine a market built on quality materials and first class tailoring. Scotland's tartan industry as a whole contributes some 4,000 jobs and 350 million pounds ($700 million) to the economy so it is worth protecting."