Assets v. Liabilities

I'm getting a bit tired of reporters' use of language in this financial crisis, particularly the line that the government is going to buy up the banks' bad debts. What they are actually talking about buying is not the bank's "debts," which include the deposits and other liabilities of the banks, but their "assets." The "assets" may not be worth much, and they're certainly not worth what they cost the banks to buy, but they are nevertheless the banks' assets, not their debts. They are, also, of course, the debts of the various struggling homeowners, whose houses aren't worth much anymore.