Labor Notes: Too Big to Fail? Take it Over

[marmar]

Too Big to Fail? Take it Over.
— Mark Brenner



Billionaire fraudster Bernie Madoff may be behind bars, but his business model is alive and well. How can we keep high-flying bankers from pulling the same kind of bait-and-switch with taxpayers?

Experts — from Nobel Prize-winning economists to Alan Greenspan, the libertarian former Federal Reserve chairman — admit that some kind of nationalization for failing banks is the best way out of this mess.

But nationalization can mean many things. If the government takes over, whose interests are protected? Who pays for the losses? As the AFL-CIO executive council concluded, “Government intervention must be structured to protect the public interest, and not merely rescue executives or wealthy investors.”

The best way to protect the vast majority of Americans who don’t live the Wall Street high life is to create a federally run bank out of today’s insolvent institutions.

It would be cheaper, safer, more democratic, and more transparent. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://labornotes.org/node/2140

[aquart]

1. I'm completely comfortable with that idea.