Bank Nationalization: Only Costs $598 Billion

The great Ed Yardeni scores with this one on bank nationalization (bold is mine)

The government can buy the entire banking system for chump change. It can buy the entire S&P 500 Financials sector for $598bn at yesterday’s close. Stock investors seem to be resigned to bank nationalization. In effect, they are telling Washington, “Go ahead, you damaged them, you can have them.” Why should the government waste any more money on programs to provide capital injections to the banks? Take them all. That way all bank deposits and bank debt will be government guaranteed. Barney Franks can make sure they lend money to his friends and relatives. Chris Dodd can refinance his mortgage. Wouldn’t it be a great big joke on us all if the government suspends mark-to-market accounting for the banks it nationalizes? All this time, the Capital Kleptocrats refused to do so to protect investors in bank stocks. Now that they’ve wiped out those investors, who cares whether the nationalized banks’ books add up!

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