bad bank
n.—Gloss: A government-run bank that intentionally takes on the bad debts and deals of another bank that is in financial jeopardy. «Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri, condemns the term “bad bank.” He says the term does not exactly inspire support for the program. Maybe it should be called the “Damascus Road” bank, he says, or maybe the Fed should have a linguist look into something else more appealing. Mr. Bernanke replies that it’s officially called an “aggregator bank,” not a “bad bank.” Mr. Cleaver says that term is unlikely to catch on, and that perhaps a three-year-old should come up with something that rolls a bit more trippingly off the tongue.» —“Live-Blogging the Bernanke Hearing” by Catherine Rampell New York Times: Economix Feb. 10, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The expression to run the traps means “to perform due diligence” or “solicit a wide variety of opinions” or “investigate every angle thoroughly.” This metaphor derives from the literal sense of running the traps, which refers to hunting and fishing...
The casual phrase good enough for who it’s for suggests that something wasn’t done perfectly, but was done well enough. This saying is not all that common, but it’s been around for at least a century. Similar expressions used in the construction...