As part of the financial overhaul, federal banking agencies have jumpstarted the process of finding alternatives to using credit ratings for calculating banks' capital levels. But alternatives are few and far between and some could be expensive too.

The various bank agencies - the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision - are seeking to gather information and comments on alternatives and on a set of criteria considered important to evaluate creditworthiness standards such as risk sensitivity, transparency, consistency and simplicity.

Scott McCleskey can be forgiven if when he looks in the mirror in the morning he sees Scott McClellan, the former White House spokesman who came out with that poison-pen chronicle after the Bush people finally closed shop and left everything in shambles.

A used copy of McClellan’s kiss-and-tell, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception,” can be had today for as little as $3.89 on Amazon.com (new copies are $21.24, roughly 24 percent off the cover price, although I thought I saw one on my corner bookstore’s “great values” table the other day for $9.99.)