Banks lining up for bailout money

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- After a slow start, U.S. banks are starting to line up for a share of the $700 billion bailout program approved by Congress, Treasury officials say.

The Treasury says 35 banks have now signed up for about $163 billion in aid and hundreds more are expected to follow suit by the mid-month deadline, The Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday.

"There's some feeling this is a club you have to be a member of," says Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics.