As the United States continues to grapple with a financial crisis, many scholars and policy pundits are looking at ways to improve the lot of American cities. One recently proposed idea is land banking, which is "the process or policy by which local governments acquire surplus properties and convert them to productive use or hold them for long term strategic public purposes." In this 39-page paper released in October 2008, Frank S. Alexander of The Brookings Institution offers a lucid and compelling exploration of how land banking might be used at the federal level in order to support the millions of properties that are currently in the process of foreclosure, or those which are already vacant and abandoned. The report contains an executive summary and nine chapters (including a conclusion) which discuss the ways in which such a policy might be implemented over the short and long term.