On Feb 11, 2009, at 4:55 PM, Shane Taylor wrote:
> [Obama's] two main arguments aren’t actually very good. Yes, we have
> thousands of banks — but the problems are concentrated in a handful
> of big players. In fact, the Geithner plan, such as it is, already
> acknowledges this: the “stress test” is to be applied only to banks
> with assets over $100 billion, of which there are supposed to be
> around 14.
>
> And the argument that our culture won’t stand for nationalization —
> well, our culture isn’t too friendly towards bank bailouts of any
> kind. Yet those bailouts are necessary; and even in America they may
> be more palatable if taxpayers at least get to throw the bums out.
>
> Oh, and not a week goes by without the FDIC taking several smaller
> banks into receivership. Nationalization is actually as American as
> apple pie.
Damn, he beat me to it. I was just scribbling some notes for tomorrow's radio commentary and I made points very much like those. Speed is of the essence these days, isn't it?