Tim Geithner's Treasury Department's long awaited and much debated stress tests are due to be announced in some fashion in one week, on May 4. The results are already in, and the leaks will start with trading on Monday 27.  Above is a spirited cross-talking exchange on Charlie Rose between economist Joseph Stiglitz (bearded), Pershing Square trader Bill Ackman (purple tie), and NYT journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin.  They are in rough agreement that the Geithner Treasury PPIP plan to rescue the banks by pricing and off-loading the junk is neither certain nor credible.  Why?  The banks cannot admit to what their junk is worth because then the banks are either insolvent or make Humpty-Dumpty look sound, even urbane, resiliant, trustworthy .  Ackman:  "...what I can tell you is that toxic assets are trading in the billions of dollars everyday... it's not a business we particularly invest in, but they're encouraging us to participate..."  Rose: "On the basis of that trading, should you be able to determine (what they are worth)..."  Sorkin: "Yes, and the price then becomes too low for the bank to accept..."  Stiglitz: "... and we've made it worse recently because we allow the banks to keep it at a higher value... and we've reduced transparency, changed the rules in some sense.  We've reduced their incentives to sell these assets on the market..."  Does Treasury know of this widespread, well-explicated, tradeable doubt?  Yes.