Thursday, January 15, 2009

The National Bank of America. No, Seriously...


Americans may soon have a new banker - the government of the United States of America.

In the land of capitalism and the home of free enterprise, major banks are in such distress that some think the feds may have to inject so much capital that they're bound to wind up the majority shareholder. From The New York Times:

With two of the nation’s largest banks buckling under yet another round of huge losses, the incoming administration of Barack Obama and the Federal Reserve are suddenly dealing with banks that are “too big to fail” and yet unable to function as the sinking economy erodes their capital.

Particularly in the case of Citigroup,
the losses have become so large that they make it almost mathematically impossible for the government to inject enough capital without taking a majority stake or at least squeezing out existing shareholders.

We are down a path that this country has not seen since Andrew Jackson shut down the Second National Bank of the United States,” said Gerard Cassidy, a banking analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “We are going to go back to a time when the government controlled the banking system.”

And there you have it kids, the triumph of conservative capitalist ideology. Brilliant, positively brilliant.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/business/16banking.html?_r=1&hp

1 comment:

no said...

Well now....this would be a great way to nationalize banks for the good of the working people....drive on. A. Morris