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[quote]The US government may have to nationalise some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, has told the Financial Times.

In an interview, Mr Greenspan, who for decades was regarded as the high priest of laisser-faire capitalism, said nationalisation could be the least bad option left for policymakers.

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This really does make me wonder, especially as I'm seeing some (R) congresscritters coming out in favor of it, like Lindsey Graham, that fervent supporter of common folks' rights.

So, I have to ask - what would happen if the banks were nationalized, and what possibility would the Republican Party have to use this to make the Democratic party look bad?

So, I have to ask - what would happen if the banks were nationalized, and what possibility would the Republican Party have to use this to make the Democratic party look bad?

Well... This is merely a supposition, but I imagine it would go something like this: Either through accidental or malicious incompetence the nationalized banks would be drove into the ground, thus proving the correctness of the theory that government cannot manage anything and that the laissez-faire free market is the One True System.

However, even though it makes me shudder to say this, we may be at the point of the stopped clock being correct, and some republicans realizing traditional monetarist means of restoring capital have failed, making heroic intervention necessary.

"Mao Zedong Backs Privatization: 'Great Leap Forward' An Act Of Idiotic Hubris That Cost Millions Of Lives For No Earthly Reason, Dictator Concedes Backyard Smelters 'Particularly Boneheaded'"

"A bullet in every bespectacled head, and a pile of scrap iron in every hovel"

It's simpler than that: When the real principle is "my buddies should make money hand over fist" then the imaginary principle of "the government shouldn't interfere" can be jettisoned to get the state to bail out your buddies. Friedman's disciplines had no problem with government induced "economic shock therapy" in South America when it laid the grounds to making them and their disciples rich.

I'm still willing to bet that the Republicans will fight this tooth and nail, claw and fist.

It may be a mark of the times that I disagree with them. Nationalization increasingly seems like our best bet at stopping any death spirals which should and must be our greatest goal.