Friday, February 20, 2009

Bank Nationalization Might Be Looming

In a series of posts, Talking Points Media reports that sentiment is shifting toward nationalization banks like Citibank and Bank of America.

Perhaps, but I beg to differ on one point.

Josh Marshall is convinced that any bank nationalization by the Obama administration would be short and sweet like Sweden.

But, right now there is no private sector roadmap for financing the $14 trillion dollar economy in the U.S. Before last September, private sector financing of the economy was built at least partly out of leveraged buy outs, CDO's, and the market for credit default swaps.

It's largely agreed that these approaches to private sector financial operations have failed disastrously.

The question is whether the private sector can develop viable alternatives.

And nobody knows the answer to that yet.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How do you feel about bank nationalization?

Ric Caric said...

"Jittery" is the best word for how I feel. The current banks are proven failures that have done a poor job of adjusting to the current climate. But there's no reason to think the government has the capacity to manage financial markets either.

Of course, it could come to that.

My own belief is that bank nationalization should be pretty much a last resort. The U. S. Government is the last line of economic defense. It shouldn't be brought in too soon.

Anonymous said...

Finally, the capitalist in you comes out of the abyss. You should reveal that side of you more often.