Liquidated value of bank balance sheets is negative. So, the current shareholders should be forced to pay for nationalisation (because the share price is negative, as whatever is traded at the market is inclusive of "government salvage premium").
And why can the rules of the stock exchange not be changed? Tax structures can be changed by parliament. Building codes can be changed by parliament and/or municipal authorities. What's so terribly important about the racetrack stock exchange that it should be insulated against legislatory changes?
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
Rules can be changed! But it's hardly reasonable to change them afterwards. It's like putting people in jail for things that weren't illegal at the time they were done. That's a basic legal principle. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
FWIW, I am not sure that demanding reparations from stockholders is the best idea: Management seem a better bet - they're the ones who screwed up in the first place.
WRT ex post facto laws, sure. But nobody says that we cannot change the rule going forward. Most of the banks that are going to fail have not failed yet.
