Taxpayers have poured trillions of dollars into institutions that most never knew they were guaranteeing. In return, economies look as if they have been spared a collapse in payment systems and credit flows that would probably have caused a depression.
What has been rescued here is (in this order):
Of course, people will say that pension funds own bonds, but saving pension systems did not require saving market-based mechanisms that had obviously failed, as JakeS regularly underlines. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
A lot of the creditors are hedge fiends. So this has been a direct transfer of cash from government to speculators - with little or no return for the taxpayers.
It doesn't even need to be said that after thirty years of being told that there's no government money for public services, it's something of a surprise to discover that trillions are available as a free gift to the money markets.
To avoid nationalizations the US gov long used preferred shares. Now they have started to convert some to common shares,a Trojan Horse which I wellcome, because it is a backdoor to nationalization, long term. Patrice Ayme Patriceayme.com Patriceayme.wordpress.com http://tyranosopher.blogspot.com/
If a bank holding company is going down and that is threatening a healthy bank that they own, the solution is to take the healthy bank holding company into receivership to shelter it from the collapse. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
With the bank holding company disentangled from the payments system, it can simply go through bankruptcy like any other firm. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
