Bad Bank: A Bad Idea

(Gerald Epstein, TruthOut.org, Posted February 6, 2009) The irresponsible, and even fraudulent, behavior of bankers and the financial regulators we trusted to monitor them have left the rest of us in deep trouble with no good financial options. Major banks, including Citibank, Bank of America and others, are on the verge of bankruptcy, if not already insolvent, despite the commitment already made on behalf of US taxpayers to spend or guarantee billions of dollars to rescue them. Meanwhile, the economic vortex is dragging the rest of us down.

Something must be done to restructure the financial sector as part of the government's recovery program, and the Obama team will soon be announcing a new financial rescue plan. But the widely discussed "good bank, bad bank" option that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers might be dishing up next week is among the worst of a bad lot.

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